


Get Stoned and Throw Rocks at Joja Mart

by clefairytea



Series: Fern & Briar (Stardew Valley) [1]
Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: Casual Drug Use, Dumbass Millenial Twenty-Somethings Stuck Acting Like Teenagers, M/M, Slow Burn, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-30
Updated: 2018-06-30
Packaged: 2019-05-31 04:52:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 27,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15112163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clefairytea/pseuds/clefairytea
Summary: Sebastian really didn’t want to go out.That was true pretty much every night – he was pretty sure half the motivation between their Friday evenings at the Saloon was so Sam and Abby could make sure he left the house at least once that week. But today, he really, really didn’t want to go.He glanced down at the bong on the floor.On the other hand.The farmers had grown starleaf, and it would be good to not have to go all the way to Zuzu to find a dealer.Plus. He had promised. Sort of. Not that he’d been very responsible for what he said to farm-boy last time. His head had not really been on straight. No pun intended.He sighed, sitting up, wrapped up his bong in a plastic bag and tucked it into his backpack, hefting it over his shoulders.Half an hour. He’d go for half an hour.--Sebastian gets to know the new farmers in town, and discovers they're full of surprises. Featuring strained brother-sister bonds, the soul-destroying overwork culture of late capitalism, and Sebastian discovering a new crush.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Do you want to read a reversed series of heart events, as though it were from the perspective of the love interest towards the farmer instead? Do you also want to see me take the tiny bits of lore we have in Stardew Valley and run absolutely wild with it? You don't? Too bad, that's what I've got.
> 
> Warnings for casual drug and alcohol use, sexual references, discussion of overwork. Despite that, it really isn't that heavy. 
> 
> Also I have not smoked weed since I was an undergrad and I think it shows. It's fantasy weed, don't even worry about it.
> 
> I've split this into six sections for easier reading, but it was written as one big long thing, so I'd recommend reading it in full work mode if you can!

Sebastian really didn’t want to go out.

That was true pretty much every night – he was pretty sure half the motivation between their Friday evenings at the Saloon was so Sam and Abby could make sure he left the house at least _once_ that week. But today, he really, _really_ didn’t want to go.

He glanced down at the bong on the floor.

On the other hand.

The farmers had grown starleaf, and it _would_ be good to not have to go all the way to Zuzu to find a dealer.

Plus. He had promised. Sort of. Not that he’d been very responsible for what he said to farm-boy last time. His head had not really been on straight. No pun intended.

He sighed, sitting up, wrapped up his bong in a plastic bag and tucked it into his backpack, hefting it over his shoulders.

Half an hour. He’d go for half an hour.

#

“It’s a dude,” Abby said definitively, not even glancing back from the game of _Journey of the Prarie King_ she was playing.

“No, no, no,” Sam said, shaking his head empathically, “It was totally a chick! She just sorta had mannish shoulders, but definitely a chick.”

Abby swore, the tell-tale jingle playing as she lost her final life and the game cut to black. She then turned around, looking Sam square in the face.

“I’m telling you, it was a dude. He came into my parent’s shop and introduced himself to everyone. He was all like,” she retorted, and then put on a horrible, grating falsetto, “’Good morning Mr Pierre, Mrs Caroline. I’ve just moved into that old farm down the way, I do hope we’ll become terribly good friends. I’ve recently planted some parsnips and I’d be delighted to bring you some when they’re ready’.”

Sam snorted.

“Oh come on, even if it was a dude, he did not talk like that,” he said, shaking his head.

“It was, and, okay maybe I exaggerated a bit, but he was _so polite_. It was totally weird,” she said, leaning back against the _Prarie King_ machine. She looked over at Sebastian, “Seb, what do you think. He must have visited your Mom’s shop, right?”

“ _She_ must have,” Sam corrected.

Sebastian didn’t look up from the shot he was lining up, resting the pool cues carefully on his knuckles.

“Don’t know, don’t care,” he said, and took his shot. The cue sent the cue ball shooting across the green, hitting the other balls with a satisfying _clack_ , and a thump as one fell into a pocket.

“Urgh, how are you so good at this,” Sam complained, taking a swig of his beer.

“I actually figure out what I’m going to shoot before I do it,” Sebastian explained, mouth twitching into a smirk.

“Whatever, man,” he replied, wiping beer foam from his upper lip, and then glancing back at Abby, “And I’m telling you. It was a girl. A little short, curly hair, freckles, glasses…”

“Yeah, you’re almost entirely right. Only it was a _guy_ ,” she retorted, shaking her head.

“You have got to blind, she had huge –“ Sam began, and then trailed off, hands still groping the air in front of his chest.

“She had huge what, now, Sam?” Abby said, tone sweet, gentle, and absolutely dangerous.

“Yeah, do tell,” Sebastian said, raising his eyebrows at him. Sam flushed red and fell silent, hands falling to his side.

They laughed, and Sebastian began setting up the table for another game. Abby pumped another 5G piece into _Prarie King_ and turned her back to them, apparently convinced she’d finally get past the second level on her third beer.

“Hey, _Journey of the Prarie King_!” interrupted a voice, “I haven’t seen that in years! Can I have a go next?”

They looked up. A short guy in a striped t-shirt and glasses had wandered into _their_ area of the bar. He had curly hair in a weird shade of pink. His cheekbones were sharp, like someone who hadn’t been eating properly for a long while, and he had faint freckles across his nose and cheeks.

“Oh, uh!” he said, glancing between their bemused faces, “Oh, sorry, I’m Briar. I’m the new farmer. I just moved from the city at the start of this week.”

“Oh, _are_ you?” Abby said, instantly jumping forward to shake his hand, shooting a smug look at a very bewildered-looking Sam. “So good to meet you. I’m Abby. The confused one is Sam. The moody one is Sebastian.”

“Oh, hi! Lovely to meet you!” the farmer said, leaning around Abby to smile and wave at both of them. Sam waved back. Sebastian just nodded, looking mostly at the pool table. He hoped the guy wouldn’t take Abby’s friendliness as invitation to stay. He did _not_ want to be forcing small-talk with some goofball from the city.

“Hey, Briar, they didn’t have any of that weird hipster stuff you like so I just got ya whatever they had on tap,” another voice interrupted, and a girl emerged from the bar, carrying two pints of Gus’s signature homebrew. Same curly hair in the same weird colour, albeit much longer and tied into a ponytail, same freckles, same chin, also in glasses.

Sam and Abby exchanged glances – it was Abby’s turn to be completely confused, now.

“Oh, I’m sure it’s just as nice,” Briar said, adjusting his glasses with one hand and taking the pint with the other, “Um, this is my twin sister, Fern.”

#

“Oh, look who’s out!” Demetrius joked the second Sebastian emerged from his room. As he always did.

It took every inch of control Sebastian had not to yell at him or storm right back downstairs. Only the fact he didn’t want either Mom or Demetrius scrutinising the contents of his bag in any further detail stopped him.

Maru turned around from her station in the lab, staring at him as though he was from another planet, gaze piercing.

“You’re heading out?” Mom said, sounding far too happy about it. He flushed.

“Yeah, is that so weird?”

“Well, it’s not Friday,” Maru pointed out, in her usual, obnoxiously literal manner, holding a finger up, “As you only tend to go out on Friday evenings, it would surprise us a little bit!”

Sebastian breathed out through his nose, face going pinker and pinker despite himself.

“Yeah, well, the farmers invited me over,” he said, shrugging.

“Oh, that’s great! Showing off my additions to their house, huh?” Mom replied, brightening even more, but Sebastian did not like the sly look on her face.

“Briar’s a nice young man,” Demetrius said approvingly, as though Sebastian asked him whether or not he approved of who he hung out with, “He always stops to help me with my research when I need it.”

“Yeah, he and his sister bring me all sorts of cool stuff from the mines too!” Maru chirped, and then added, scratching her cheek, “So, um, are you heading out now…or?”

She was clearly angling for an invitation. There was no way he was taking his baby half-sister along. Aside from Sebastian’s lingering doubts that she would actually keep quiet about the fact the farmers were growing an illegal substance, if Demetrius figured it out he’d kill Sebastian in his sleep.

“Obviously,” he muttered, “Anyway, I’ll get out of your hair, bye.”

Before his family could stall him any further, Sebastian shot out of the door. As he left, he thought he saw Maru’s face drop in disappointment.

Whatever. He was out of the door now, and he had told Mom and the other two he was going. He _had_ to go now if he didn’t want to be interrogated about it.

#

“I hate this.”

“We know, Abby.”

“This sucks so hard.”

“We _know_ , Abby.”

“I doooon’t want to doooo thiiiiis.”

“Dude, seriously, just tell your Dad you don’t want to,” Sam said finally, sweating in his Flower Dance get-up and fiddling with his bow-tie. It was way too warm a spring day to be wearing a stuffy suit. At least Abigail was wearing something appropriate for the weather.

And she looked…well. Sebastian thought she looked better in her normal clothes, but the dress was a nice change. The flowers looked nice in her hair.

Urgh.

He drained the last of his water, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand.

“Why don’t you tell _your_ Mom you don’t want to,” Abigail hit back, glowering at him. Sam ran a hand through his spiky hair.

“C’mon, that’s not the same thing. Penny _wants_ to dance. I can’t let her down,” he said, with a glance across at where Penny was chatting animatedly to Robin and Maru, “You and Sebastian can both sit out. You’d be happier for it.”

“I’m not giving Mom and Demetrius any more fuel for the Maru-is-the-better-child fire,” Sebastian muttered, fingers itching for a cigarette suddenly. Sam and Abigail both stared at him in that half-disbelieving, half-pitying way he’d really come to hate.

“Dude, seriously – “ Sam began, and then was interrupted by Mayor Lewis shouting at someone. All three of them jumped, briefly wondering what the hell they’d done now, and saw, for once, it wasn’t them.

“What on earth happened to you two!?” he spluttered.

The twins had finally turned up. Fern was still clutching a battered-looking sword, and Briar had a pouch of rocks at his belt and what looked like a slingshot sticking out of the pocket of his jeans. Both of them were dirty, battered, and Fern had what looked like green slime in her ponytail.

“Haha, sorry,” Fern said, grinning like a maniac and not sounding sorry at all. Lewis looked like he was gearing up for a lecture, when Briar jumped in.

“I’m sorry, sir, we went into the mines in the morning,” he said, in that annoying hyper-polite manner of his, “We ended up getting side-tracked dealing with a slime infestation…we really do appreciate the invitation.”

“Haha, yeah, sorry, man. Apparently the slimes have been multiplying a lot down there recently,” Fern continued, and then her voice turned serious, “They can be a real problem for a community, if they multiply enough to start leaking out of their habitat. They need to be culled regularly.”

Lewis stared at them both for a second, and then seemed to soften.

“Ah, well, thank you for that. I suppose it’s partially my fault for not keeping a close-enough eye on that situation,” he said. Fern laughed, waving his apology off.

“Nah, c’mon, you can’t be expected to do that,” she said. Her grin hadn’t faltered for a second since they’d arrived. Briar looked considerably less delighted.

“Ah, I’ll see if Marnie has anything you kids can wipe yourselves down with,” he said, “Are the two of you going to participate?”

“Sure, I think I remember the dance,” Fern said, “Grandpa taught us it way back when. Won’t mess up the ritual if siblings dance together, right?”

“Ha! I don’t expect so,” Lewis said, and then ran off towards where Marnie was chatting to her weird moody nephew.

“Ah, jeez, I think we made him mad,” Briar said, and then glanced at his sister, “I _told_ you we didn’t have time to hit the mines this morning.”

“Oh whatever, we made it, didn’t we?” Fern replied, and then noticed the three of them staring, “Hey! So you guys are dancing today too?”

“Dad’s making me,” Abby said instantly, folding her arms, “I wouldn’t if I didn’t have to.”

“Same for me,” Sebastian said, “This whole thing is dumb. I’m amazed you two came with nobody making you.”

“Trust us, Grandpa would come back from the grave and drag us here by the ear if he could,” she said, and then glanced them up and down, “Though I didn’t realise there’d be a dress-code.”

“You three look nice, by the way,” Briar added, smiling at them all.

Liar, Sebastian thought. Abigail looked nice. Even Sam at least suited it. He just looked like a dweeb. He avoided Briar’s eye, not wanting to see how much he was holding back a laugh.

“Uh-huh. Hey, Bri, let’s mingle – I think there’s a few people here we haven’t both introduced ourselves to yet,” Fern said, tugging on his arm.

“Oh, huh, oh – hey, there’s Shane! Let’s go say hi!” he said, and then twisted around to wave at the three of them, “Later guys!”

“They are _way_ too excited to be here,” Sebastian said, sighing.

“They won’t be when they realise what a snooze the dance actually is,” Abigail replied, shrugging, and then added, “I didn’t know they were _monster-slayers_ though! That totally rules. Maybe I should ask them to take me down there with them some time…”

Sebastian shook his head. In her own way, Abigail could be almost as predictable as everyone else in this town.

Despite the fact the twins were even more out of time than everyone else (saying something, considering Haley was the only one who could actually vaguely dance), and clearly exhausted, Sebastian couldn’t help but think they were the only ones who looked like they were actually having fun.

#

The autumn leaves crunched satisfyingly under his boots as he made his way to the farm, the cool evening wind sending his scarf (a lumpy Winter Star present Abby had attempted to knit several years ago, in one of her many phases) flying out behind him. It was one of his favourite times of year – Hallow’s Eve just round the corner, hours of light shrinking smaller with every passing day, the leaves falling crisp and golden all around him, and the flocks of bats wheeling around the sky late at night.

He always felt like he got his best programming done around this time too. Although maybe that was because Mom and Demetrius spent less time pestering him to go out and “enjoy the sun”. Like he wouldn’t look like an enormous idiot running around on the beach with his pasty chest out.

He stalled by the entrance of the farm, marked only by a small, hand-made sign – “Stardrop Farm”. A generic enough name, Sebastian thought. Especially since he was 90% sure they didn’t and couldn’t grow stardrops on their land.

He stared at the sigh a moment longer, hand gripping the strap of his backpack hard enough to crumple it.

Was he sure, exactly, the farmers had invited him? They’d definitely invited Abigail and Sam, but of course they had. Abigail and Sam were _nice_ to them. He’d just been all weird and stand-off-ish and awkward every time they’d talked to him. Maybe it had been a pity invite?

He checked the time. 7pm. Exactly on time.

What if he was the first one there? Then he’d have to go into their farmhouse and make awkward small-talk with both of them. That could only be painful.

They could still be getting ready. They were city people, after all. There, it was probably cool to arrive fashionably late, not unfashionably punctual like he was. They’d think he was weird.

Something grabbed his shoulder. He jumped, yelping, and swung his arms wildly. Abigail jumped back, laughing. Behind her, Sam grinned at him.

“Don’t do that,” he snapped, flushing.

“Sorry, sorry,” she said, “Were you waiting for us?”

“Uh. Yeah.” Sure. Why not. That was what he had been doing.

“Liar,” she replied, laughing, and then grabbed his forearm, “C’mon, let’s go.”

#

Sebastian didn’t know what the hell was so funny upstairs, but all the laughing and chatting was seriously making it hard to focus on his work.

Earphones didn’t help. He smokes a few puffs of a cigarette, stubbed it out. Paced his room. Rolled a joint, changed his mind, and stuffed it back into his hiding box. He didn’t have time to get stoned right now – despite what a lot of programmers said, it didn’t make you code better. It just made you sloppy and unfocused. And this module needed to be done by midnight.

There was a pop, and a round of raucous cheering, and Sebastian stood up, suddenly seething. What the hell were they doing on a Tuesday night that required this much noise?

Teeth gritted, he stormed up the stairs. The noise was coming from the kitchen.

He’d just maturely, reasonably, ask them to keep it down. He had a deadline, and they knew it. He was an adult, and they were the ones in the wrong. As long as he did it politely, calmly, there was no way anyone could find fault with it.

“Are you sure you want us to keep them?”

“Please! I _know_ you should have charged more for that chicken coop. It’s the least we can do.”

“Besides, they’re our first bottles; they probably suck!”

“ _Fern_!”

More laughter, and the smell of something delicious came drifting down the hallway. Sebastian paused, mouth filling with saliva, and stomach rumbling.

What were the wonder twins doing here?

He shuffled over to the kitchen, trying to remain as quiet as possible. Demetrius was pouring red wine from an unlabelled bottle into glasses, Maru was cutting a fluffy loaf of bread into thick slices, and Mom was dishing out hot bowls of her special pumpkin soup.

“It’s not autumn yet,” he blurted out, stupidly. The five of them froze, like a deer in headlights, and stared at him. Mom fiddled with her ponytail, the twins exchanged tense glances, Maru coughed into her hand, and Demetrius just smiled pleasantly. It was the latter reaction that irritated him the most.

“Oh, well, JojaMart has them out of season…” Mom said. Something dark flitted across both Fern and Briar’s faces at that. Briar seemed to shake it off quicker than his sister.

“Sebastian! The smell of food lure you out of your den?” Demetrius said, and then looked around, “Looks like we’ll be needing the emergency chairs.”

“Sorry, Sebby, I – well, you told me you had a deadline, and I know you don’t like to be interrupted, but Fern and Briar came around with their new wine. I was just going to bring dinner to your room,” Mom blathered, clearly not anticipating Sebastian to creep out of his ‘den’, as Demetrius oh-so-flatteringly called it. Apparently she wasn’t counting on his gloomy presence to ruin dinner.

“There’s more than enough wine to go round! It’s only salmonberry wine, but we think it came out nice,” Briar said abruptly, getting to his feet and scrambling for another bottle in a crate by the door, his entire face flushed. His sister observed him with a frown.

“No – look I don’t. I don’t want to interrupt anything. Even though I _clearly_ have.”

He didn’t mean to spit the last sentence. He really didn’t.

“Whatever,” he said, the single word meaning to be a true dismissal, acting like he wasn’t hurt his family were having a nice get-together dinner he wasn’t even _invited_ to. It didn’t work.

“Could you guys just keep it down? I’ve got to get this done tonight,” he said.

“O-of course,” Maru said, “You know, if you finish early, you’re more than welcome –“

“Cool, bye,” he interrupted, leaving before he could embarrass himself any further.

#

“Hey, awesome, you guys are here!”

Fern greeted them at the door to the farmhouse, her hair damp and bundled into a bun at the top of her head. She was wearing a _Sadie Killer and the Suspects_ t-shirt, a pair of boxers, and mismatched socks.

“Cool shirt,” Sebastian said.

“Ha, thanks. Me and Bri saw ‘em at Zuzu a couple of years back. They ruled just as hard back then too,” Fern said with a nod, gesturing them through the door eagerly.

“Where’s your bro?” Abigail asked, dumping her messenger bag on the floor unceremoniously.

“Bath. He’ll be out in a min,” Fern said, shrugging.

Sebastian placed his bag down with considerable more care. He really didn’t want to have to order a new bong – Demetrius would cluelessly open it without checking the addressee, and then they’d have to have a Talk. Like he was some 16 year old kid, not a twenty-fucking-three year old man.

Sheesh. Twenty-three and still sneaking weed paraphernalia into his Mom’s basement. Best not to linger on _that_ for too long.

“The place looks pretty good!” Sam said, shrugging off his coat, “Mom said it was awful the first time she visited.”

“Ha! Yeah. I had nowhere for my swords, so I just had them in a big pile on the dining table,” Fern said, taking their coats just to dump them unceremoniously on the floor, “You know we actually shared a bed for the first week?”

“No way,” Abigail laughed.

“Yeah, we slept top-and-tails, like when we were little kids. It took ages for the second bed we’d ordered to get here,” Fern said, “I dunno if you’ve ever tried to sleep next to Briar’s smelly feet, but I wouldn’t recommend it.”

“We had sleepovers like that when we were kids,” Sam said cheerfully, “I bet Sebastian’s feet are worse.”

“You haven’t _smelled_ my feet since then!” Sebastian blurted out, suddenly self-conscious. _Did_ he smell? He had practically bathed in deodorant before leaving, so he should hope not.

“He hasn’t done what now?”

Sebastian jumped – Briar emerged from the bathroom, towel clutched around his waist, slipping his glasses back on.

He couldn’t help but gawk. What the _hell_ , when had that scrawny kid started building up muscle? He wasn’t exactly like his sister, or Alex, but he didn’t look like a stray breeze could snap him in half any more. His waist was more solid, his arms thicker, skin more tanned. Even his face looked less gaunt.

Clearly farm-life was agreeing with him.

Abigail wolf-whistled.

“Oh!” he said, as though he hadn’t realise he was near-naked. He flushed, tugging his towel tighter around himself, “Uh, sorry guys! Figured you’d be the type to be fashionably late. I’ll. Um. Go get dressed.”

He took a few steps forward, clutching his towel for dear life, and then stopped in front of Sebastian. Who found his brain had begun generating nothing but static.

“Uh, I need to get to my room,” he said, gesturing behind him. Sebastian stepped out of the way, at the same moment Briar stepped in the same direction. And then they repeated it in the opposite direction. Then they froze in place opposite each other for a good ten seconds. Briar laughed nervously, and then awkwardly rushed past him, disappearing into his room.

Fern and Abigail were, blissfully, deep in conversation about weaponry, and missed the whole embarrassing debacle. Sam, watching with his eyebrows inching closer and closer to his hairline, mouthed something that looked an awful lot like ‘Smooth’.

This was going to be a long night.

#

“I insist you do something for your back,” Harvey said, looking at him sternly.

“It’s fine. It only aches a little –“ (like hell) “- some of the time.” ( _Most_ of the time.)

Harvey clicked his tongue, clearly not believing a word.

“Well, be that as it may, your profession involves a lot of typing, a lot of sitting over a computer, and your day-to-day posture…well, honestly, Sebastian, it isn’t fantastic,” he said, with a sympathetic glance. Sebastian found himself hunching over even more, as if only out of spite. Harvey shook his head.

“Honestly, all of these can add up to some serious problems with your back and wrists later in life. Or even quite soon in life. And with how much of your work and leisure relies on your ability to use a computer…it could have a horrible impact on your daily life,” Harvey said. Sebastian tried to scoff, but, in all honesty? The occasional pain that shot through his wrists really did scare the hell out of him. What would he do with himself if he couldn’t use his computer? A massive chunk of his life would be cut out. And what about his bike – would he be able to ride it, with a fucked up back? And it wasn’t like he had many other skills, so his dreams of leaving Pelican Town would go up in smoke too.

“Okay. What do you recommend?” Sebastian asked. Harvey brightened up immediately.

“Well, there are some regular exercises you can do. I can email you some excellent videos and resources…oh, there’s the baths as well!” he continued, “We’re actually quite blessed by the hot springs in this town. The water does wonders for your health. And for your skin.”

Sebastian suddenly became painfully, blisteringly aware of the acne on his jaw and forehead.

“I haven’t been to the hot springs since I was a kid,” he said. Didn’t Alex hang out there? The last thing he needed was to be parading around naked in front of Mister Universe.

“Ah yes, it’s a shame. Most people in town don’t use it very often. I suppose the other amenities aren’t very well-maintained, and it _is_ out of the way,” Harvey yapped on, “Ah, but you’re so close by! Yes, I absolutely insist you take advantage of it. If I lived as close as you did, I certainly would.”

With that, and an obligatory lecture on how he should really quit smoking, Sebastian was bundled out of the office. Maru waved at him (a tad too enthusiastically for his taste) as he left, and he raised a hand, mostly scrolling through the resources Harvey had sent him on his phone.

Well, he couldn’t promise he’d do these exercises as often as recommended. He was terrible at sticking to things, as Demetrius liked to remind him every so often.

At the very least, he’d give the hot springs a go.

Despite the late hour, it was still bright out as Sebastian walked to the old train station, a towel bundled up under his arm. The weird old homeless guy was hanging around the baths again. Sebastian gave him a wide berth. Partially because the dude creeped him out, and partially because he still felt horrible about what he, Sam, and Abigail had done to the guy’s tent when they were kids.

Urgh, he didn’t want to think how the goody-two-shoes, always-helping-his-neighbours, gives-away-his-first-batch-of-spring-wine farmer would react if he learned about _that_.

Whatever. Like he even cared what the wonder twins thought.

The locker didn’t seem to actually…lock, but since the baths were eerily deserted, he didn’t think this was a big concern. He doubted anyone would run off with his old hoodie or shitty sneakers. He stripped, shoving his clothes into a locker so at least the rats wouldn’t get at it.

The shower wasn’t working either. Amenities ‘unmaintained’ his foot. More like ‘in complete ruins’.

It had been a very, very long time, but Sebastian was 90% sure you were meant to shower before going in a communal bath.

He sighed. Well, he’d come all the way at this point. It’d be stupid to turn back. Dumping his towel, he headed towards the entrance to the baths. Even with no-one around, he found himself glancing back and forth, convinced half the town were going to burst in at any moment and see him butt-naked.

How did people feel comfortable with this when the baths were in common use? Urgh.

His bare feet slapped against the tiles, echoing around the bath-house. Okay, he wasn’t sure he’d be coming back here any time soon. This was creepy. And he _liked_ creepy.

The steam was dense, soaking him in sweat in seconds. He hesitated by the water’s edge, testing it with his toe. It was hot enough to make him hiss through his teeth. Thinking of carpal tunnel, he pushed through, sinking down to his waist, and then his chest, until only his shoulders and head were protruding from the water.

As much as he hated to admit it, it was pretty nice. It felt and smelled nothing like the chlorinated pools from his high school.

“Mm, mmm, mm.”

There was just one small issue.

“Mmmm, mm mm, mmmmm.”

The person humming was _not_ him.

Stiffening, he waded through the water towards the source of the noise, convincing himself it was just the heat making his heart hammer and hands tremble. There was someone, their back to him, but he couldn’t see through the steam.

“Hey!” he called.

“Gah!”

The person stumbled, almost falling into the hot water. He turned, staring at a spot about to the left of Sebastian.

“Oh,” Sebastian said, feeling stupid, “It’s just you, Briar.”

“Err…Sebastian? That sounds like your voice. Looks like your hair colour,” Briar replied, squinting at him, and then laughed, “That’s all I’ve got to go on right now, haha. Good to have company!”

Sebastian couldn’t say he agreed. He had been counting on there being absolutely nobody here. Least of all the town’s newest darling.

“I…didn’t think anyone used this dump,” he muttered. Briar grinned, scratching the back of his neck.

“Ha, well, we don’t have a bathroom in our place yet so…it’s here or the pond on my farm,” he said, and then he was off chattering away, “It’s nice though. We never had anything like this in Zuzu. At least, nothing that didn’t charge an extortionate price. I don’t know why you guys don’t use it more often.”

“Right…” Sebastian said, still marvelling that anyone would move from the city to a run-down dead-end town like Pelican Town, “Well, it’s not exactly in top shape. I’m only here because Harvey told me it’d be good for my back.”

“Huh, what –“

It was then that Sebastian noticed something horrible.

“You’re wearing swimming trunks,” he blurted out, looking down into the water.

“Huh? I mean, yeah, did…” Briar said, and then glanced down, trailing off. Sebastian jerked backwards, hands diving down to cover his crotch, and Briar turned around, hands raised.

“I can’t see anything anyway, really, I promise!”

“I thought you didn’t –“

“Oh, I mean, the sign said to wear a swimsuit in here –“

“The _sign_?” Sebastian croaked.

“At the entrance,” Briar said, still staring stubbornly at the wall.

Sebastian was pretty sure he wasn’t just flushing because of the steam at this point. There had been a _sign_.

“Hey, look, it’s no big deal!” he continued, voice steadily rising in pitch, “You probably just saw hot springs in anime and figured, oh, yep, that’s how hot springs work!”

Sebastian had no reply to that, he could only splutter, indignant and humiliated.

“That is _not_ – “

“Hey, uh, anyway, I think I’ve done my time in here!” Briar continued, stubbornly not looking at him, “Enjoy-the-rest-of-your-bath-bye!”

He scrambled out, not even heading towards the stairs, and dashed back into the changing rooms as fast as he could without falling on the linoleum, leaving Sebastian red-faced and feeling very stupid.

#

“So, there’s pepper poppers, cheese dip, chilli jam, the pizza we made is in the oven, aaaand there’s some blueberry tart and cookies for after,” Briar said, placing an enormous plate of pepper poppers on the coffee table. The twins seemed to decorate their flat in the style of ‘whatever crap they could get their hands on’. Sebastian was fairly sure Briar just came to his Mom’s house and bought whatever furniture she had in stock every other day. It would explain why he was over so often.

The result was they had a living room that was a pair of mis-matched sofas, a squishy armchair, around a low birch coffee table, all pointing towards a bulky television.

“Man, you didn’t need to make this much,” Sam said, already grabbing a pepper popper and dunking it in chilli jam.

“Seriously, this is great!”

“Well, I figured we’d get the munchies,” Briar said, “Plus, it’s good to have someone who isn’t me or Fern try my cooking. She’ll eat basically anything.”

“Untrue,” Fern called, from where she was grinding the starleaf at the kitchen counter, “I wouldn’t touch that weird bun thing you baked the other week. Yo, Seb!”

Sebastian jumped at being addressed, looking up.

“C’mere and fill the bong, will ya. I’m about ready to pack our first bowl,” she instructed, gesturing at him to join her. He stood, uncertain, and took the bong over to the kitchen.

Abigail and Sam were happily tucking into the pepper poppers, complimenting Briar’s kitchen prowess through mouthfuls of molten cheese. He grinned sheepishly at the praise, face lighting up in a way that made Sebastian’s insides squirm in a weird, stupid way he didn’t want to deal with.

Swallowing, he moved past Fern to the sink.

“You’re quieter than usual,” she said quietly, ensuring the others couldn’t hear. He glanced at her.

“Just tired.”

“Uh-huh,” she said, and then turned to face him, “You know you can relax around us, right?”

“So you’ve said,” he muttered. The twins were almost a regular addition to their Friday hangouts at this point. It was easier, though, to feel comfortable around them when they were playing pool or watching Abigail get her ass kicked at _Prarie King_ at the Saloon, rather than here. In unknown territory. Being fed home-made food and looking at all the weird prints and posters they have in their living room. Not to mention: Briar. Just. Generally.

“I’m serious, dweeb – we like you,” she said, nudging him with her elbow.

“Sorry, I’m just not – you know, great at talking to people,” he said, “And you’re both so outgoing. I guess I don’t feel like I’m going to measure up.”

Fern stared at him. He shifted, fiddling with the strings of his hoodie. He’d heard other people in town joke that there was something about the farmers that made people just pour their hearts out to them. He had to say, he couldn’t imagine that being a great trait to have. He wouldn’t want random people telling him all their problems.

Fern just laughed, not unkindly, just a bit disbelieving.

“Ha! I mean, I _guess_ ,” she said, “It’s not that easy for us either, you know. We were scared shitless when we moved here.”

Sebastian blinked – that was a new one. He was pretty sure they’d both ran around like lunatics from day one, introducing themselves to everyone and running odd jobs for people. That wasn’t the behaviour of two people scared to be somewhere new.

He shook his head.

“Do you want me to fill this with cold water, or warm?”

Fern grinned at him.

“I leave that to your expert opinion.”


	2. Chapter 2

“Sebby?”

“Mom, I’m working,” Sebastian replied immediately, not looking up from the screen full of code he was trying to fix. He didn’t know what idiot had developed this module in the first place, but clearly they had never heard of commenting your code. Or making it remotely legible to a sane human being.

“Oh, I know, I know,” Mom said, opening the door to his bedroom just a crack. The strip of light it let in illuminated the floating dust motes, and made him suddenly conscious of how dark and depressing his room was.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to come down and clean now and then, Sebby?” Mom asked, sniffing, “It’s…hm, well. It could do with a little bit of a tidy.”

“It’s fine, Mom, I know where everything is.” (A blatant lie. He hadn’t been able to find the Blu-Ray he’d borrowed from Abigail for weeks. He just despised cleaning.) “What do you want?”

“You have a visitor, that’s all!” Mom replied, stepping aside. Behind her stood Briar, holding something wrapped in black paper to his chest, his expression sheepish. Sebastian froze, fingers still resting on his keyboard. He hadn’t seen the guy since that whole embarrassing fiasco at the baths the other week, and he had been hoping to keep it that way. He’d even skipped out on their Friday-night hang with a ‘headache’, on the off-chance Briar might be hanging out there too.

Briar waved.

“I’ll make you boys some coffee,” Mom said. She waved away Briar’s protests, and shot Sebastian a scathing look over Briar’s head as she left. The meaning was clear: _be nice_.

Sebastian sighed and turned a little in his chair, looking at Briar expectantly. The guy just stared at everything in Sebastian’s room in silence, as though he’d never seen anything like it. Sebastian sighed.

“Look, I’m kind of busy, do you actually have a reason to be here?”

“Ha! Sorry, I kind of like looking at people’s rooms…tells you a lot about ‘em, you know?” he said.

“Like what?” Sebastian asked, raising an eyebrow. That he didn’t like the sun? That he didn’t clean up as often as he should? That he didn’t make his bed in the morning?

“Liiike, you’ve got good tastes in video games and graphic novels…oh, and books. And that computer looks like you built it yourself, so you’re smart and understand tech…” Briar said, tapping his chin thoughtfully, “Oh! And you don’t care about fitting in. Though I kinda figured that from your whole like…’Grr don’t talk to me, I’m a mean loner who smokes by the lake and mumbles about conformity’ thing.”

Sebastian stared.

“Are you…making fun of me?”

He’d never really heard the guy say anything that wasn’t insufferably polite or utterly saccharine. Briar grinned, and the resemblance to his little sister had never been stronger.

“Only because I like you.”

He snorted despite himself.

“I’ll let you get away with it for today,” he informed him, “And only because I want to know what you’re _actually_ here for.”

“Oh. Uh. Well, I actually came to apologise.”

Sebastian raised his eyebrows at that.

“Well! I feel like the past couple of times we’ve ran into each other it’s went kind of…not great,” he said, adjusting his glasses, “And I really like hanging out with Sam and Abigail, and they’re always talking about how great you are. So I think it would be awesome if we could be friends. And, well, here.”

He thrust the small bundle of black tissue paper into Sebastian’s hands. Sebastian stared at it, and then looked back at Briar, staring at him expectantly, all but vibrating on the spot. He unfolded the paper, and barely restrained a grasp. Sitting in the centre of the paper was a glossy pale crystal, in the perfect shape of a tear drop. He looked up. Briar bounced up and down on his heels, clearly pleased with his reaction.

“Abigal and Sam said you used to collect stuff like this in high school! I’d normally cook if I was gonna give someone a present, but our kitchen still isn’t ready yet, and I didn’t really wanna try cooking anything fancy over an open fire –“ he cut himself off, as though realising he was chattering, and then added, “Soooo…good?”

Sebastian looked up.

“Yeah. It’s really good – thank you,” he said. Frozen Tears were hard to get hold of. Although he didn’t really collect minerals any more (Demetrius had been far too enthusiastic about the hobby and put him off), it was…well, it was a nice thought. Briar pumped both of his fists, still bouncing up and down on the spot. The guy really seemed to get a buzz out of giving people gifts, Sebastian thought, more amused than irritated by that now.

“So, what are you working on?” Briar asked, leaning over to glance at his screen. Sebastian sighed, putting the Frozen Tear aside for the moment.

“Nothing exciting. I’m a freelance programmer. I’m working on a project for a client. Just some dull finance software they want tweaked,” he said. Briar leaned over to check the screen, seemingly oblivious to the fact he was obliterating Sebastian’s personal bubble. He smelled earthy.

He looked at the screen for a second and then leaned back, laughing. Sebastian hunched his shoulders.

“What?” he asked.

“Nothing, nothing. Just. I wanted to try and help but this is _waay_ more complicated than anything I’ve ever done,” he said, laughing, “Look, you’ve clearly got serious work to do, you want me to leave?”

Sebastian paused, surprised. It wasn’t often anyone thought he was doing actual work. Everyone in the house seemed to think he was just screwing around on the internet all day. Even Sam and Abigail would come barging in at a moment’s notice, and not take ‘Get out I’m busy’ for an answer.

“Mom’ll be mad if leave without drinking your coffee,” he said, shrugging, “If you don’t mind being bored watching me work, you can hang out down here for a bit, if you want.”

Briar tilted his head.

“Can I read your manga?”

This dude was so weird, Sebastian thought. An ex-programmer-manga-fan-whatever-he-was-meant-to-be that moved out to the middle of nowhere to run a farm with his linebacker of a sister. And then spent half of his time running around in a monster-infested mine or doing random chores for people.

Whatever. It wouldn’t hurt to let him poke about. He didn’t have anything embarrassing in there.

“Just put everything back where you found it when you’re done. I have a system,” he said, waving a hand at the shelf.

“I wouldn’t do anything less.”

#

“So. Uh. How do I do this…exactly?”

“Oh, my gosh. Please say this is your first time?” Abigail said, clearly delighted. Briar laughed, but shook his head.

“No, no, sheesh! I’ve smoked starleaf before just…never with a bong,” Briar said, positioning the bong awkwardly between his crossed legs. Sebastian watched him, leaning back on his elbows. As he’d brought and packed it, the twins had insisted he have the all-important first hit. Now he was starting to suspect it was because they had no idea how to use a bong.

“I’m kinda surprised,” Sam blurted out, “I mean Fern I get –“ (“Hey!”) “- but you’re like…”

“A goody-two-shoes,” Fern supplied, propping her chin up on her hands and smiling at him. Briar shrugged.

“It’s not that big of a deal. We messed around with it in college, that’s all,” he said, flicking Sebastian’s lighter. He was clearly trying to copy what he’d just watched Sebastian, Abigail and Sam do.

“Don’t burn all the leaf, just tilt the flame towards it,” Sebastian advised.

“Don’t put your lips _around_ it…kind of put it inside, so it suctions to your face and seals it airtight,” Abigail added.

“Try not to drool!” Sam piped up.

“That is a _lot_ of information! Urgh. I knew we should have made edibles…” Briar muttered, shaking his head. Despite their garbled advise, Abigail and Sam’s matching shit-eating grins, he leaned forward and placed his lips inside the mouthpiece, hair falling in front of his eyes. With a flick of his thumb, he lit the lighter, tilting it towards the packed herbs. The water at the bottom bubbled as Briar breathed in deeply, chest expanding. He pulled away, lips closed tight for a second, and then exhaled, a plume of smoke stretching into the air. There was a tiny cut on the corner of his mouth, but otherwise his lips were a soft, even pink. His eyes fluttered open after a second, and he caught Sebastian staring and smiled, forcing him to suddenly take an interest in the ceiling.

“Aw, jeez!” Briar blurted out, looking down at the bong in his lap, “I totally drooled. Sorry, sis.”

“Gross,” Fern laughed, “Clean that before you pass it to me.”

Sebastian couldn’t say he’d even particularly noticed.

#

He hadn’t stormed out.

He was almost 24 years old, he didn’t _storm_ anywhere.

It was just Maru was in an annoying mood, knocking on his door and asking him about what he was reading. When he’d just grunted that she wouldn’t be interested, she’d gotten even pushier.

He just didn’t feel like explaining. It was a sci-fi series, which Demetrius always seemed to think wasn’t “real literature”, so undoubtedly the oh-so-perfect Maru wouldn’t either, and the main character just so happened to be a farmer.

Which wasn’t why he picked the book up.

But he didn’t want anyone thinking that.

So Maru had started doing that annoying nervous-laugh thing she did when she was being nosy, and Demetrius had started coming down and trying to play mediator, like it wasn’t ridiculous to be telling a grown man to be nice to his sister.

So whatever. Sebastian hadn’t stormed out. He’d just left for a bit of peace and quiet and a smoke.

The door had just closed a bit harder than he’d intended.

Lighting his cigarette, he sat down on the edge of the lake, letting his feet dangle. It was still light out, although the leaves were beginning to turn. He was glad for it – he couldn’t stand the summer heat. Plus, Sam and Abigail were always trying to drag him to the beach, even though he’d rather drown himself than flounce around in his swimming trunks, and the air conditioning never worked as well in his basement than it did in the rest of the house.

He sighed. He was kind of a depressing guy.

He bet farm-boy would hate to see the summer go. He’d probably spent the whole season running around on the beach with Haley and Alex and his sister.

 _He’d_ never get into a stupid argument with his family.

Stupid. Why was he thinking about this.

He wish he’d thought to grab his book before, yes, storming out.

“Oh, Sebastian!”

He jumped, almost dropping his cigarette, and turned to see farm-boy behind him, a fishing pole over his shoulder.

“Fishing?” Sebastian asked, and immediately mentally slapped himself. Dumb question.

“Uh-huh. I’ve heard there’s a couple of good fish I can catch in this lake. Fern doesn’t really like fishing, but she’s hanging out with Penny at the library today so…” he replied, with a shrug.

“Cool, well…I don’t wanna distract you –“

“Hey, hey, you don’t have to go!” Briar said, catching Sebastian by the arm before he could turn and leave, “We can chill together. Fishing’s more fun with a little company anyway.”

“Well…if you want,” Sebastian said, finding himself increasingly tongue-tied. What the hell was wrong with him.

Briar didn’t seem to notice, simply beamed at him and started setting up shop next to him, chattering about the new pole he’d bought. Made of iridium, apparently, strong enough to reel in even big fish, and light as a feather to boot.

“And, look, I tried a couple of tutorials online and tried making a few bits of tackle, figured they might be helpful,” he continued, showing Sebastian one he’d made, explaining how the colours and movement were designed to mimic prey, drawing fish closer to it.

It was brightly coloured, pale purple and pink tassels and ribbon wrapped around a silver hook. Briar attached it to the end of the line and held it between his thumb and forefinger, where it span, back and forth. Sebastian had to admit, the effect was kind of hypnotic.

“Ah, crap, sorry, this is probably totally boring if you don’t like fishing,” Briar said, rubbing the back of his neck. Sebastian shook his head, probably too vigorously, and then took another drag of his cigarette.

“No, it’s interesting. I always thought fishing was kind of…grubby,” he admitted, thinking of Willy’s dirty boots and smelly overcoat, “I didn’t realise it involved all this planning and skill.”

“Haha, I mean, most things take more than you think. I totally thought farming was going to be just sticking stuff in the ground, watering it, and then coming back in a couple of days for the spoil,” Briar said, in a tone that suggested he was admitting something deeply shameful. Sebastian raised both eyebrows at him.

“You don’t…regret coming out here, do you?” he asked carefully, curious despite himself. He though the twins would last a season before getting bored and moving back to the city. If he’d moved from the bright lights of Zuzu to the dull monotony of Pelican Town, he’d be kicking himself for it in a week. Briar laughed, shaking his head.

“No! No! Just...Grandpa was always, you know – he didn’t even finish high school. He never knew what I was talking about when I told him about stuff I was doing in college, or at work, so I always figured that farming was, um. Well, that it didn’t take that much brain-power,” he continued, face going pinker and pinker. Sebastian’s eyebrows ascended higher on his face. Farm-boy was always so aggressively _nice_. He could never have imagined he’d have an uncharitable thought about anyone, never mind being so judgemental about his own grandfather.

Weirdly, Sebastian found that it made him like the farm-boy more. Made him seem like less of an obnoxious golden-boy.

“I’m guessing you learned that was a mistake quick enough,” he said. Briar laughed, nodding, and then cast his line. They lapsed into comfortable silence, Briar watching the water and Sebastian…okay, sort of watching Briar. He’d never really watched anyone fish before. He’d walked past Willy doing it a billion times, but if he’d never even given the man a second glance.

He couldn’t say there was a lot to it, but the look of steady concentration on Briar’s face was…sort of weirdly interesting.

By the time Sebastian was onto his second cigarette, Briar had caught a flopping carp, spraying water everywhere as it was dragged out of the water. Sebastian scrambled to his feet, alarmed, and Briar titled his head at his reaction, the thing (were carps _always_ that big!?) thrashing around in his hands.

“Wanna hold it?” he asked, and Sebastian was sure that was a smirk.

“I- I’m good,” Sebastian said, certain that it was staring at him. Its eyes were so black and glassy. Creepy.

Briar laughed and put the carp in a bucket of water next to him, and started baiting the hook again.

The sky was beginning to darken above them, when Sebastian spotted someone emerging from the mines across the lake. He blinked, and then nudged Briar gently with his elbow.

“Your sister’s over there,” he said. It was definitely Fern – dusty and bloodied, a sword hanging from one hip, a pick-axe on the other, and an over-stuffed rucksack on her back. Grinning like a maniac, despite the exhausted sag to her shoulders.

Sebastian supposed she must have gotten bored of the library at some point. He’s about to wave hello, when Briar shoots upright, shoving his rod in Sebastian’s hands, and starts making his way over. Across the lake, Fern freezes, eyes wide as she catches sight of her brother, and then starts hastily making his way to meet her, manic grin turning decidedly nervous.

Sebastian, unsure what the hell else to do, stands with the fishing rod in his hands and just stares.

“Uh, hey, so, uh…what are you doing?” Briar began, his voice high and tone faltering. Fern looked like a kid who was caught with her hand in the cookie jar, all ‘Whoopsy-daisy’ smiles and shifty eyes looking for an easy escape.

“Relax, Bri. I just went a few floors down. No biggie.”

“What, but…ha, listen,” Briar said, breathing in deeply, “I thought we, you know. Agreed it wasn’t safe for either of us to go down alone. We’d go down together.”

“Ah, c’mon. We never shook on it or anything –“

“Fern, it’s _dangerous_!” Briar snapped, temper fraying. Fern tilted her head back and groaned, sounding like a sulky teen.

“Uuurrrgh, seriously?” she groaned, “What’s the big _deal_. This used to be my job –“

“You’re not working with a team any more –“

“What, do you think I can’t handle myself?” Fern said, folding her arms, “Baby sister needs a big strong man to protect her, is that it?”

“You _know_ that’s not it, don’t be stupid,” Briar retorted, sharply, “I’m just trying to say that you’re not immortal. You could still have an accident, no matter how good you are! If you get hurt down there all by yourself and couldn’t get back out –“

“But you _never_ want to go to the mines! It’s always, ‘Oh, no, Fern, fortune teller said spirits were perturbed today’, or ‘We should work on our beehives’ or whatever,” she said, “If I waited until you wanted to go down, we’d _never_ go down there. You have no sense of adventure.”

“Oh, yeah, sorry I’m not delighted by having eight million monster bats fly at me,” he snapped, “Clearly I’m just such a bore.”

“You can be, sometimes,” she muttered. For a second, Sebastian saw Briar wince, as though Fern hade managed to press, just lightly, against a raw nerve, and then his expression hardened.

“I’m just trying to be sensible,” he said, sounding like beleaguered mother.

“Urgh, well, whatever, I went down there by myself, I’m fine, it’s done now. What is the point in lecturing me?” she said, and waved an exhausted hand, all her victorious energy from before gone, “I just wanna go have a bath and go sort out this crap I found, not review our sibling-contract or whatever.”

Briar huffed a sigh and then glanced back, as though just remembering Sebastian was there. He flushed a little, and then raised his hands in surrender.

“Okay, whatever. But I think we should talk about this. I don’t appreciate being _lied_ to, for one,” he said.

“Yeah, yeah, I know, Mom, sorry. I just gotta wash the slime outta my hair first,” Fern said, “See ya. Later, Sebastian.”

She stalked off, still muttering to herself. Briar watched her go, foot tapping, and then released a pained yell as soon as she was out of earshot.

“She is _so_ immature sometimes!” he said, and then turned to him, “I really apologise you had to see that.”

“No, it’s, uh. It’s really okay,” he said, fascinated despite himself, “Though I thought you two got along all the time.”

“We mostly do,” Briar said, rubbing his eyes with the palms of his hands, “Just, you know. Sometimes she does reckless stuff like this and gets mean when I try to convince her to be reasonable. It would be me having to deal with it if she got hurt…”

He swallowed, shaking his head.

“I probably am kind of a bore, huh?”

“No. I mean, you’re just looking out for her, right? That’s what family’s meant to do,” he said, feeling awkward. Despite the fact he just blurted out whatever stupid thing came into his head, Briar’s whole face lit up, bright enough to be embarrassing to look at.

“Haha, yeah, you’re an older brother too, right? You get it,” he said. Sebastian felt himself turn pink.

“No, that’s not - I – look, do you want your rod back or what? I’m pretty sure something’s taken the bait at this point,” he said.

Briar titled his head at him, clearly bemused by that reaction, but thankfully decided to let it pass.

#

“So uh…I’m not an expert but….this is kind of a strong strain, isn’t it?” Briar slurred, lying on the floor with the cat on his belly.

Sebastian nodded, lying a few feet away from him, his hands tucked into the pockets of his hoodie. He stared, entranced by the patterns in the twins’ ceiling, watching faint blobs of colour pass by his vision. Starleaf only made you hallucinate like this if you either had a lot of it, or it was particularly strong. His head was swimming, and his spine felt fuzzy and cloudy, like it wasn’t properly resting on the floor.

“I feel fine,” Abigail said from the couch. She had been watching the Queen of Sauce for the past hour with the sound off. They had started watching it unmuted at first, but the sound of chopping and human voices proved to be disorienting, so Sam had muted it and started playing tinny music on his phone.

“Is that why you can’t get up?” Fern asked, giggling. Sebastian tilted his head to look at her, entire vision swimming as he did. She was leaning her back against the couch, pupils blown out and gaze pointing towards the TV, albeit not exactly focusing on it.

“I can get up. I’m just comfortable,” Abigail replied, “Hey, Sam, I have some video games in my bag. You should set them up.”

Sam stood, staggering, and gave a clumsy salute that reduced both Fern and Abigail to useless laughter, before heading to where Abigail’s messenger bag had been dumped in the corner. He dragged out the console and began hooking it up to the TV, fingers fumbling with the cables.

“Urgh…where does? Wait, no…wait…” Sam muttered, “Has this always been this complicated…?”

Sebastian sniggered. This would take a while.

“I need to piss,” Fern announced to nobody in particular, standing and draining the last of her water bottle, “Did you really need to give us _all_ , like, a litre of water to drink, Bri?”

“Starleaf can leave you dehydrated! You guys should drink more of yours…” Briar said, apparently ignoring the fact his own bottle was still two-thirds full.

Sebastian swallowed, his mouth and throat feeling as though they were stuffed full of cotton, his lips dry. He swiped his tongue over them, uselessly – his mouth wasn’t really producing saliva. Sighing, he twisted around and reached for his own water bottle, taking a few steady chugs. Maybe it was just the leaf, but he was sure the water on the twins’ farm was way tastier than the water he drank at home.

“Urgh…” he muttered.

“What?” Briar asked.

“Now _I_ need to pee,” he replied, suddenly conscious of his bladder ballooning. He stood, blinking hard. The blobs of colour were still sliding over everything, and the tomatoes on screen looked particularly red, like they’d just been dragged fresh from the ground. He glanced down at Briar. His hair looked pinker than usual, and his freckles stood out more. He smiled up at him.

“Eh, just use the ensuite in our bedrooms,” he said, glancing towards the closed bathroom door, “She’ll be in there for like another year.”

“You sure?” he asked, feeling weird. He’d never went into either of the twins’ bedrooms before.

“Sure, sure. I don’t have any dark secrets,” he replied, waving a hand and then turning onto his side to watch Sam slowly unwind the cables for the controllers. Sebastian glanced back at the bathroom door, and then walked towards the twins’ bedrooms. They had separate rooms now, side by side. He pushed the nearest door open and walked through.

It was Fern’s room, judging by the unmade bed, the swords on the wall, and the jars of slime scattered throughout the floor. There was a stack of other stuff on her desk, what looked like wings and scales and scraps of fabric, along with tiny glowing stones, and sheets of paper, scribbled all over in Fern’s messy handwriting. Above the desk was a corkboard, covered in stuff.

Despite himself, Sebastian wandered over to check it out (Briar was really rubbing off on him…). There were a few post-it notes (“Need more flower seeds!”), some ticket stubs (their bus tickets to Stardew Valley, the concert ticket for their band’s first gig in Zuzu), a strip of silly photobooth pics with Briar, and a picture of a group of burly people in Joja blue.

He paused, carefully taking the photo from the board. For a second, he didn’t recognise Fern – her hair was dark brown, tied in a bun and tucked under a Joja-brand helmet, wearing blue armour on every inch of her body, leaving only her hands in thick gloves, and her face exposed. There was a huge sword strapped to her back. A few people around her in matching uniforms beamed at the camera, their arms around Fern’s shoulders, some of them flashing peace signs or holding up their blades. It must be back from Fern’s professional monster slayer days, slaving away killing slimes for Joja.

Unlike most people who worked at Joja, though, she actually looked happy.

Sebastian carefully pinned the photo back into place on the board.


	3. Chapter 3

_Hi! (^o^) Hope this isn’t annoying, but I asked Abby for your number!!_

_who is this_

_You can’t tell??? Σ(_ _･_ _o_ _･_ _;)_

_briar_

_Yep!!! Got it in one._ _╰_ _(_ _･_ _ᗜ_ _･_ _)_ _╯_

_can’t imagine how I could tell_

_Hehe. Soooo…I was wondering if I could come round this evening?_

_if mom and demetrius want you around for dinner you don’t need my permission_

_(_ _ー_ _△_ _ー；_ _)_

_No, dude! I want to hang out with you!!!_

_I saw that you had the Abyss Station Chronicles books on your shelves. I actually have the first season of the TV series on DVD!_

_I thought it’d be fun if we hung out and watched it. \\(*^_ _ᗜ_ _^*)/_

 _We don’t have anything to play DVDs on at our place and I think you’d…enjoy it. (_ _∗_ _´_ _꒳_ _`)_

_im alarmed by that emoji_

_Oh, are you? (_ _∗_ _´_ _꒳_ _`)_

Sebastian wasn’t sure why he agreed to this. He didn’t like having people in his space. He didn’t like having two loud, annoying twins in his space. Especially since both Fern and Briar seemed to have a habit of just rummaging through other people’s stuff, regardless of whether or not the owner themselves was there.

He put it down to being disarmed by such a sudden self-directed invitation, not to mention Briar’s near unstoppable onslaught of cutesy emojis.

And the fact he spent the entire day tidying his room and trying to get the starleaf smell out of it was. Well. That was neither here nor there. His room was due a tidy anyway.

“Ha, didn’t realise the President was visiting today, Seb,” Demetrius commented, as Sebastian emerged from his room with a garbage bag of old crap he needed to toss. Maru twisted around.

“What d’you mean?” Sebastian said, unsure whether he was meant to laugh or not.

“Just that you don’t clean a lot, that’s all.”

“It’s my space. I can clean it however much or as little as I like,” Sebastian retorted, before he could stop himself. Mom glared at him.

It wasn’t that he _liked_ snapping at Demetrius. It was just that the man seemed determined to needle at him. Like he was pressing Sebastian’s anxiety buttons intentionally.

“A clear room is a clear mind,” Maru said sagely, “Do you have a big project you’re getting ready to work on?”

“No. Nothing like that,” Sebastian said, praying that they wouldn’t actually ask. He’d love for them all just to go to their rooms before they even got here.

So, because Yoba hated him in particular, the front door opened.

“Hey, I’m here!” Briar called out cheerfully. He was alone, for once, with a plastic Pierre’s general store carrier bag in one hand. His hair looked damp, as though he’d come directly from the baths. Judging by the pleasant, soapy smell he brought with him, he almost certainly had.

“Bri! Lovely to see you,” Demetrius greeted. Maru waved.

“Good evening! Where’s your sister?” Mom asked, “Not often I see the two of you apart.”

“Oh, she’s in Zuzu for the night,” he replied, with a vague gesture, “Having a big get-together with her old work buddies or something.”

Oh. Sebastian hadn’t anticipated that. He’d sort of assumed that Fern was coming as part of the package.

“Well, we’re always happy to have you here,” Demetrius said, “Honey, do we have enough for dinner –“

“Uh, actually,” Briar interrupted, before Sebastian could even attempt to salvage the situation, “I was coming over because me and Sebastian are hanging out tonight.”

Sebastian could _feel_ Mom and Demetrius giving him a Look, without even turning around.

“Yeah, uh –“

“Aaand I brought the DVDs,” Briar continued, cheerfully noisy as ever, and pulled out a black box from his bag, “The Abyss Station Chronicles, all 14 episodes of season one, ready to go.”

“Abyss Station?” Maru said, “Oh! That farmer series Seb has been reading!”

“That _farmer_ series?” Mom repeated, and Sebastian could feel her gaze drilling a hole into his back. He felt himself flush, which was stupid, he had nothing to be embarrassed about.

“Yeah!” Briar said, “Wanna join us? I think you’d enjoy it too.”

“Oh, uh,” Maru said, with a glance at Sebastian.

“That sounds a grand idea! Your Mom and I will put a pizza in the oven. You kids go downstairs and have fun,” Demetrius interrupted, slapping both Maru and Sebastian on the back. Maru grinned at Sebastian, nervous and apologetic, but Sebastian’s mouth was too dry to argue.

As much as he didn’t want Maru bouncing around his room sniffing at all his things, he wasn’t sure how much he wanted to be completely alone with Briar. In his room. Especially with the way Mom was looking at him (baseless accusations, completely baseless, he wasn’t even into guys).

“Sure,” he choked out instead, and found himself bundled downstairs with Maru and Briar, both chattering eagerly. Briar had brought some mead, homemade from the honey from his own bees. Sebastian wasn’t usually much of a drinker – he only really had the occasional vodka and orange at the saloon – but he agreed to try it. It was golden and sweet, far lighter than Sebastian thought anything made out of fermented honey had the right to be.

Sebastian realised Briar was staring at him as he took his first sip.

“Thanks. It’s good,” he said, a bit lamely. Briar brightened up, and then Maru began chattering away to him about the science of the fermentation process, a conversation that, to Sebastian’s surprise, Briar was able to keep up with.

Not having a clue what the hell they were talking about, Sebastian decided to preoccupy himself with putting the DVD into his computer, trying to arrange a space for them to sit and watch. The only option, really, was to sit on the bed and watch on Sebastian’s largest monitor. It wasn’t exactly a home cinema, but he couldn’t really think of any other options.

With that, and the pizza Mom brought down for them to share, they settled in to watch the first episode.

It was.

Uh.

“Well…this is…interesting,” Maru said slowly. On screen, the station captain was pretending to fire a laser blaster, the laser shooting entirely out of the wrong place on the screen, trying to take down hordes of vicious alien beasts (shaved dogs with antennae stuck to the top of their heads).

“Yeah. It’s…” Sebastian began, desperately scrambling for how to word this without hurting Briar’s feelings. Until he caught a glance at the other man’s face. The realisation hit him like a truck.

“What the – you _know_ this is awful!” he blurted out. Briar collapsed into laughter, drowning out the sound of the captain’s warbling “Noooooo!” as he disappeared beneath a pile of wagging tails.

“Sorry, sorry!” Briar wheezed, “This adaptation is just so _infamously_ terrible that the second I figured out you hadn’t seen it already, I couldn’t resist.”

“Is this what the books are like?” Maru said, adjusting her glasses.

“No, not at all!” Briar interrupted, before Sebastian could rise to their defence, “That’s what makes this series so bad. The books aren’t this noisy, gaudy mess. They’re quiet. Thoughtful. They really explore the idea of trying to carve out a living somewhere new and unknown and frightening, and managing to find connection and beauty doing that, even when it’s difficult. This series…”

Briar turned a scornful gaze to the screen, and shook his head.

“It totally misses the point,” he concluded.

“Yeah,” Sebastian said slowly, “That’s exactly it.”

Briar smiled and nudged him with his shoulder. The warmth of his skin lingered far longer than it should have.

He pushed the thought out of his mind. He didn’t have a crush. He was just having weird, random thoughts. Probably because he hadn’t dated anyone in so long.

He took another swig of mead.

“So, if we’re not watching this –“

“Who says we’re not watching it?” Briar asked, both eyebrows raising, “I _need_ to see your face when you see what they do with the ambassador’s subplot.”

Sebastian had to admit. He sort of wanted to see what the special effects team did for the Space Ravens.

“Me and Fern have a drinking game we used to play when we watched this in college,” he continued, “Wanna try it?”

They nodded, and Briar began to explain the rules.

Drink whenever there was a terrible special effect (easy enough – there were many). Drink whenever the main character loaded his gun unnecessarily (he did seem fond of that, to Sebastian’s exasperation. He didn’t even _have_ a gun in the books). Whenever the general wore something wildly impractical (she had been turned from the 50 year old grizzled veteran of the books to a svelte 20-something in a push-up bra. Sebastian would personally track down whoever made that decision and end them). Whenever a cast member looked directly at the camera (tragically frequent – it was like they were silently pleading for help). Whenever something exploded (Sebastian was sure this drinking game was intending to do the same to his liver).

Sebastian had never seen Maru drink anything other than wine at dinner before, but she took to it well, becoming giggly and goofier with every sip. Soon they were laughing at the nonsense on screen and snarking over the dialogue together, struggling to come up with jokes more ridiculous than the actual dialogue.

He had to admit, he was surprised. He had anticipated Maru to be the overly-serious type, the sort that couldn’t play along with watching something ironically.

It’s probably one of the first times the two of them have really hung out and enjoyed themselves. Maybe without Demetrius and Mom hanging about, Maru wasn’t such an obnoxious goody-two-shoes.

Unfortunately, Maru’s lack of experience also meant that by the time they reached episode 10 she was falling asleep on his shoulder.

“Go to bed,” he said, nudging her awake. She yawned, rubbing her eyes.

“M’fine,” she murmured, and began falling asleep again. Next to him, Briar giggled, hiding his mouth behind a hand.

“You’re _not_ sleeping down here,” Sebastian continued, waking her up and sitting her upright. She yawned, rubbing her eyes.

“You’re bossy,” she said plainly, exhaustion and alcohol eroding her usual good manners, “I want to keep going if you two are. We never hang out. It’s fun to actually spend time with you.”

Sebastian didn’t know what to say to that.

“Uh…well, it’s not really hanging out if you’re asleep,” he spluttered, and thrust a bottle of water at her, “C’mon. Drink some water and head to bed.”

Maru sighed and took a drink of water, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, and then stood up, wobbling.

“Okay, I suppose I am quite tired,” she said, “Goodnight. Thank you for the mead, it was super! Make sure Briar gets home safely, Sebastian –“

“Go to _bed_ ,” Sebastian groaned, not ready to sit and listen to Maru drunkenly rattle off pleasantries for the next half an hour. She stopped, grinned, and then waved, staggering up the stairs and out of his room.

He turned back to Briar, who was staring at him with an enormous grin on his pink face. Turns out he was the kind to go red in the face while drinking (cute, a traitorous voice inside Sebastian’s head noted).

“There’s maybe a drink each left,” Briar said, holding up the last bottle of mead, the remaining liquid at the bottom golden and glinting in the dim light of Sebastian’s room, “Wanna finish it?”

“We might as well,” Sebastian said, holding out his mug. Briar poured them both a final drink.

“Cheers!” he said, clinking his glass against Sebastian’s mug. They leaned back against the wall, drinking as they watched…whatever the hell was happening on screen now. Sebastian had lost the plot of the show a long time ago now.

“Hey, uh,” Briar piped up, “Thanks for having me round. I – well, this is kind of embarrassing to say, but I really didn’t want to be by myself tonight.”

“Really?” Sebastian asked, not sure what else to say. He liked being by himself as much as he possibly could. “Something special about tonight?”

“Oh, no, no! Nothing like that, I just, uh,” Briar said, seemingly struggling to get his words out. It was odd to watch. The guy was usually so chatty and excitable. Sebastian had assumed that his heart was squarely placed on his sleeve. Looking at him now, staring at the mead in his glass and smiling, a bit sad and a bit awkward, he wondered if he needed to re-evaluate that assumption.

“I’m just not very good at being by myself. Especially on the farm,” he said, and then caught the quizzical look on Sebastian’s face, “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love the farm! And it shouldn’t feel lonely, not with my cat and the chickens and my cow but. I don’t know. When Fern’s not there, and it’s just me in that house, and I look out at Grandpa’s old shrine…”

He shivers.

“I dunno, being able to feel Grandpa’s presence on the farm is usually comforting, but if it’s just me, I just start thinking about all the times I wasn’t exactly the best grandson, and how he always seemed to like Fern better, and whether he’d really be happy with _me_ taking over his old land and –“ he continued, and then seemed to catch himself. He laughed, draining the rest of his drink, “Oh, boy, I probably sound like a crazy person.”

“No, no. I mean, I can’t say I get it, totally but…” Sebastian said, “Having someone prefer your sister to you, I get that.”

“Robin loves you to pieces,” Briar said, immediately, and then in a more slow, careful tone, “And you had fun hanging out with Maru tonight, didn’t you?”

“Well…I mean, I guess, but – hold on,” Sebastian said, something clicking into place, “Did you _intend_ for Maru to join us?”

Briar grinned, holding his hands up.

“Guilty!”

“What, that’s - don’t do that!” Sebastian snapped. The grin on Briar’s face dissolved immediately.

“But –“

“No, just. Don’t try and _trick_ us into being friends. I get enough of that from Mom and Demetrius,” he said, looking away and taking another sip of his drink. The mead suddenly felt very sour in his mouth.

“I – I’m sorry,” Briar stuttered, “I was just trying to help –“

“Aren’t you always,” he huffed. Brair winced, but Sebastian wasn’t about to take it back. The guy was always running around fetching people shopping, finding things people lost, fixing stuff around town. He’d got Shane to cut down on his drinking, he and his sister were working on fixing the bus and cleaning up the community centre, and half of the stock in the museum and library was based on the twins’ donations.

Objectively, he knew all of these were good things. Yet there was a part of it that still grated against his nerves. It was just so… _nosy_.

“Sorry. I uh. I know I have a habit of being…interfering,” Briar said, tone slow and tentative, “It’s gotten me into trouble before. I’m working on it.”

He looked so genuinely hurt and self-effacing that Sebastian couldn’t retain his anger. He sighed, nudging him gently in the arm.

“It’s not all bad. Just don’t try and force it,” he said, and then added, “It was actually…not too bad to hang out with her.”

“She wants to be friends with you, you know,” Briar said, “She’s just not sure how to do it.”

Sebastian snorted.

“I’m serious!”

“Uh-huh.”

“Why do you think she wouldn’t?”

“Who wants to hang out with the gloomy guy who lives in his Mom’s basement,” he muttered, finishing his drink.

“Uh, hello?” Briar said, pointing at himself with a toothy grin, “Me, for one.”

Sebastian stared at him, and then shook his head. Now that he thought about it, he couldn’t understand why the hell Briar had decided to hang out with him. So he didn’t want to be alone on the farm all night, big deal, he didn’t need to come _here_. Near everyone in town loved him, he could have spent the evening with anyone.

“Sure,” he said, glancing away.

“I mean it!” Briar replied, “You’re way too hard on yourself. You’re smart, interesting, you’ve got great taste in games and books, and you should hear how Abby and Sam talk about you. They love you.”

Briar nudged against his shoulders.

“I think you’re great too, y’know?”

Any closer and he’d be sitting in Sebastian’s lap.

He bolted to his feet, almost tripping over himself. Briar stared at him, head tilted, messy hair sticking up in every direction.

“Uh, so –“ Words, Sebastian, he pleaded with himself, remember how to use them. “I mean…if you don’t want to be alone tonight, are you thinking of crashing here?”

What in Yoba’s name had inspired him to say that.

The silence felt as though it were a million hours long.

On the one hand, an idiot part of Sebastian’s brain _really_ wanted a flimsy excuse to sleep in the same bed as Briar.

On the other, he _definitely_ had a crush, and he _definitely_ didn’t know how to deal with it and definitely didn’t trust himself not to make an utter ass of himself, so the sooner Briar got out of his space the better.

“Oh, no, I gotta be up early to feed the chickens,” he said, standing up and stretching, “I’ve had enough to drink I’ll just pass out immediately when hitting the bed. I can’t be haunted by my grandpa’s Disappointment Ghost if I’m asleep.”

Sebastian smiled, suddenly very conscious of every movement of his facial muscles. Oh this sucked so bad. He was so screwed.

“Here, uh, I’ll walk you to the door,” he said, picking up Briar’s rucksack from beside his bed.

In case Briar had forgotten where the front door was in the past couple of hours. Why was he being such an imbecile. Briar didn’t seem to think anything odd about it, just laughed and accepted his rucksack. They crept up the stairs, to the dark hallway.

“What _is_ that noise?” Briar whispered.

“Maru snores,” Sebastian said, nodding towards Maru’s room.

“I thought Robin was doing late-night carpentry,” Briar said, and Sebastian pressed a hand over his mouth to muffle his laughter. They stood at the door, and Sebastian was conscious of his hands, his face, suddenly not sure where to put his body or what to say. Briar lingered, looking at him, as though waiting for something, but it was beyond him what.

“So, uh…”

“Wait,” Sebastian blurted out, “Just so you know. I really don’t think your Grandpa has any reason to be disappointed.”

It was a stupid thing to say. He’d only met Briar’s Grandpa once or twice when he was really little, and he didn’t know anything else about the guy. He barely even know what their relationship had really been like when they were alive.

Despite that, Briar stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Sebastian in a tight hug, burying his face in his shoulder. For a second, Sebastian didn’t know what the hell to do with his arms, and just settled for resting his palms on Briar’s back. He was warm, smelling mostly of mead, but his hair, softly tickling soft Sebastian’s cheek, still smelled of soap and bath salts.

He released him, smiling widely, and Sebastian wondered if Briar felt how much his heart rate just skyrocketed, and whether he was making any (correct, they were totally correct, _urgh_ ) assumptions about why.

“Okay, I’m off. Night, dude, see you around.”

He waved and then was off. Sebastian stood at the doorway, hand held up, watching the front door slowly swing shut. The sound of Briar’s footsteps disappeared into the night.

Sebastian buried his face in his hands and silently screamed into his palms.

#

Washing his hands, Sebastian glanced at the door. There were two entrances to the ensuite – one through Fern’s bedroom, and one, presumably, from Briar’s room.

He could just go back through Fern’s room and re-join the party without making things weird.

Curiosity, however, was far too powerful. Rubbing his hands dry on a towel (printed with little cartoon cats. Cute), he nudged the door to Briar’s room open.

It was neater than Fern’s room. Not quite the meticulously organised space he’d been anticipating, but there were no dirty clothes scattered on the floor or half-eaten plates of food on the nightstand, and the bed was carefully made. Unlike his sister, Briar didn’t cover the walls with posters. Instead he had a sparse few, all tasteful, framed, and arranged neatly on the wall. A poster for some anime movie, a painting of a farm at night, and an artsy piece of concept art for an old video game.

He paused by the bookshelf. Sebastian had expected neat, tightly packed shelves, all arranged alphabetically and by category. He was right about the tightly packed part, but that included books arranged horizontally on top of books, all of them just disorganised in whatever order. He smiled, noticing a full set of _Abyss Station Chronicles_ novels, all of them well-worn.

There were a few he hadn’t anticipated though.

_The Mathematics of Wizardry and Witchcraft_

_Affecting Change from the Inside Out: How to change your company’s working practices for the better_

_A Realist’s Guide to the Junimo: Myths, legends, and the bare facts_

_Sentience and the Ethics of Monster-Slaying_

_Profitable Atrocities: A History of the Ferngill and Gotoro Conflict_

_Corporate Ferngill: How The Suffocation of Magical Culture and the Subjugation of Gotoro Lines the Pockets of Ferngill’s Elites_

Apparently Briar had more controversial opinions and colourful interests that everyone anticipated. He didn’t think the twins were interested in magic stuff, for one. And while he knew both of them had a pretty strong anti-Joja stance, despite their previous work, he didn’t realise how deeply the sentiment ran.

Across the room, was a desk covered in stacks of books, papers, and other stuff. There was a large book open on it. Glancing at the door (he could still hear the others laughing, it didn’t look like anyone was going to sneak up on him), he crossed over to check it out. It was a photo album – an honest-to-Yoba, physical photo album, like it was 1982 or something. It looked as though Briar was halfway through putting it together.

It was open to a page showing Briar and Fern grinning on the beach south of Pelican Town, arms over each other. The stack of photos by it were all of the twins at Pelican Town events, or with the local residents.

Cautiously, Sebastian flicked back to prior pages. Fern and Briar hanging out by one of the fountains in Zuzu City, eating hot dogs. Fern and Briar with an older man and woman. The woman had their eyes, while the man had their distinctive freckles. Sebastian couldn’t help but think the twins’ smiles were a bit strained. Briar kissing some dude with dark hair on the cheek at Zuzu Pride. Sebastian flicked past that one quickly.

Briar in a large crowd, a peace sign drawn on his cheek, and a sign held over his head: _No war for profit._ Next to him was Fern, one fist in the air, the other carrying half of a banner.

Sebastian recognised the protest. It had been years ago, he had just started college. Around the country, people had marched and picketed to protest the deployment of Ferngill troops in Gotoro territories. Some of the marches had gotten ugly, and a lot of the protesters had been arrested.

Sebastian had always been too scared to go to any of them.

And he’d assumed Briar was some kind of goody-two-shoes conformist, just because he didn’t want to toss a pound of anchovies into the village potluck.

He was such an asshole.

“Whatcha looking at?”

Sebastian jumped, smacking his knee hard against the desk, and swore. Briar stood behind him, arms folded and head tilted. For a second, he thought that he was going to be pissed at him for snooping, but the smile on his face was gentle, amused.

“Your photos…” Sebastian said, stupidly. Briar came to stand next to him, standing on tip-toes to lean over his shoulder, his chest pressing into Sebastian’s back. He really wished he wouldn’t do that – even though he was messy and smelling of starleaf, Sebastian’s heartrate jumped up at the simple contact.

“Ah, yeah,” Briar said, with a breathy chuckle, “Guess you didn’t expect that, right? Believe it or not, I was actually one of the guys who got arrested at those things.”

“You _didn’t_?” Sebastian gasped, so scandalised he sounded like Evelyn for a second. Briar laughed.

“Yeah, I did. Kind of took the wind out of my sails though – it scared the life out of me,” he said, “Dad though…he easily got me off the hook, even got it scrubbed from my record. On the condition I behave from then on.”

“And did you?”

“Yeah. As I said. It scared the life out of me,” he said, and there was a note of bitterness in his voice that Sebastian had never heard before, “Dad gave me a big lecture about how kids shouting and throwing tantrums never changed anything. If I wanted to ‘help people’, I needed to do it the right way…that kinda stuff.”

“So…that’s how you ended up working for Joja?” he said slowly. Briar looked at him, and laughed. He opened a drawer on the desk and took out an envelope, filled with glossy photos. He flicked through them until he found the one he wanted, and then shoved it into Sebastian’s hands.

It was a group picture of Joja employees, in their white shirts and baby blue ties. It took Sebastian a full minute to even find Briar in the photo. He looked completely different. His hair was dark brown, and his face was pale and gaunt, eyes unsmiling despite the curve of his mouth.

“This before you dyed your hair?”

“No, this was when I _was_ dying my hair,” Briar said, twisting a lock of pink hair around his fingers, “Joja policy. No unnatural hair colours. It didn’t look good for them to have people with magical heritage on staff…”

Sebastian swallowed. He’d sort of thought that their hair colour might be natural, the way Caroline’s or Emily’s was. It was just not a polite thing to bring up.

“Fern’s here too, look,” he said, leaning around him to point the girl out. She was even more unrecognisable than Briar. Her wild hair had been straightened smooth and dyed brown, arranged into a neat plait across her shoulder. Dressed in the Joja blouse, blue neckbow, pencil skirt, and blue heels, she looked like a complete stranger. Unlike the bland smile on Briar’s face, her expression was one of utter misery.

“Wait…I thought Fern worked for the monster control squads in her Joja days,” he blurted out, “In fact, how did you guys even go from Joja office work to running a farm?”

Briar looked at him, and laughed.

“That’s kind of a long story,” he said, rubbing the back of his head.

“I’m not in a hurry,” Sebastian retorted, arching an eyebrow. Briar smiled ruefully.

“Well, alright,” he said, and then pulled a small packet out of his pocket, “Wanna have another hit beforehand?”


	4. Chapter 4

“Summer’s _finally_ over,” Sebastian said, sighing. Even though it was the last day of summer, it was still warm, but he was grateful for the cool breeze, the leaves starting to fall from the trees, and the quicker onset of dusk.

“And you managed to go another season without asking Abby out,” Sam replied, glugging down the rest of his Joja Cola. Sebastian flushed.

Right. Abby.

The crush that was apparently so obvious everyone in town that _wasn’t_ Abigail knew about.

The one he’d had since stupid high school, even when he’d been dating some other girl.

Did he even still like Abby at this point? He honestly wasn’t sure. He’d been so busy having a stupid bi crisis and being freaked out by cute, freckly boys in glasses to be freaked out by cute, pudgy girls with purple hair.

Maybe he just liked Abby out of habit, because it had been going on for so long.

That was kind of depressing. He was so shy and awkward that he’d managed to have a crush long enough that it just burned itself out.

Sam seemed to take his silence as confirmed that he was still torn up over that, and gave him a manly pat on the back.

“Man, you should _just_ ask her,” he said, tossing his trash into the bin outside of Haley and Emily’s house. Sebastian sighed, shoving his hands into the pockets of his hoodie.

“I’m not sure I even want that any more,” he said. Even saying it felt like a betrayal.

Sam stared at him as though he’d grown a second head.

“Woah, man, are you telling me that you’re… _moving on?_ ” he said, voice dropping to a mock whisper. Sebastian sighed.

“Maybe, I don’t know.”

Sam stared at him, and Sebastian shifted. Sam was kind of a dope at the best of times, but he was also far more perceptive than he let on, and he’d known Sebastian since they were both babies. If his crush on Abby was obvious, he could only imagine his crush on farm-boy was even more so.

“You like someone else,” he said firmly.

“What, that’s –“ Sebastian spluttered, “What gave you that idea!?”

“Your reaction just there,” he said, grinning. Sebastian had to smother the reaction to just punch him.

“Fine, whatever, I do. It’s not important.” He said, quickly, feeling like a preteen at a sleepover, being needled into admitting his crush. Sam’s face was like a cat that had just snapped up the family canary.

“Is it Fern?” he asked, “She seems like your type. And she’s hot in a sorta, ‘I could kick your ass’ type of way.”

Sebastian couldn’t help it, he let out a burst of incredulous laughter.

He supposed, in a way, it made sense. Fern was actually similar to Abigail in many ways – albeit more muscular, more pushy, and her monster-hunting dreams were far better idealised. It would totally make sense for him to have a crush on her. Maybe more than crushing on her neurotic, people-pleasing brother.

He hadn’t really told Sam he was bi yet.

Which was. Dumb, now he thought about it. Sam was bi himself. He’d been out since his college boyfriend. He wouldn’t judge.

“It’s not her,” he said, shaking his head. Sam stared at him.

“Eh, then who is it?”

“Look, just, - urgh, there’s Abby. Be quiet, you.”

“Hey guys!” Abigail said, rushing up to join them as they began to walk towards the beach, “Ready to watch the jellies again this year?”

“Yep, thrilled to watch the same jellyfish we see every year,” Sebastian grumbled.

“Woah, someone’s cranky,” Abigail said, and then glanced at Sam, “What’s the matter with him?”

“Sebastian has a crush,” Sam said, immediately. Not even having the decency to look a bit ashamed. Abigail’s mouth fell open, and then broadened into a huge grin.

“No way! Mr Loner Programmer himself?” she said.

“It’s not a big deal,” he muttered.

“Is it Shane?”

“…W-what?” Sebastian said, thoroughly thrown off by that, “What? Why would it be…?”

Abigail shrugged.

“I dunno. Just like. This moody older guy with baggage. Sort of good-looking, in a dangerous way. Seems like that’d be your type.”

It was so incredibly off-the-mark that all Sebastian could do was gape at her.

“…Err…Abby, do you think Seb is gay?” Sam said slowly. She looked between them.

“Well…yeah?” she said.

Oh Yoba, this evening was already becoming a train-wreck. This explained why Abigail was able to be soresolutely oblivious to his stupid crush.

“I had a girlfriend for a _year_ in high school!” Sebastian spluttered.

“But you spent most of your relationship avoiding her,” Abigail said, scratching her cheek. Sam doubled over laughing. All Sebastian could do was splutter and blush. Eventually, Sam straightened himself up, rubbing his eyes.

“Haha, oh, no. Abigail, Sebastian’s straight as they come,” Sam said, slapping him on the back.

“…Well that’s not entirely right,” Sebastian muttered. It was Sam’s turn to look surprised now.

“Huh?”

“Uh. I’m bi,” he said, and realised it was probably the first time he said it aloud. He hadn’t noticed what a weight it had been until it was gone.

“Oh, dude, why didn’t you tell us?”

“I only figured it out recently.”

“Oooh, so it _is_ a boy,” Abigail said, smiling. Sebastian groaned, irritated at himself for letting that slip.

“Yes, okay, fine, can we please drop it?” he said, wondering if he just turn around, go home, and lock himself in his basement for the rest of the year. They smiled at him sympathetically, and thankfully turned the conversation back to the jellyfish.

As they reached the beach, Sam split off to join Jodie and Vincent. Abigail eyed Sebastian for a further minute.

“What?”

“It’s Briar,” she said.

Oh, of course, now it wasn’t her, she suddenly became a master detective. Fantastic. Awesome.

He didn’t reply, just sighed, his fingers twitching for a cigarette.

“I’m surprised, I mean, I didn’t think you’d be into such…cutesy people,” Abigail said, scrunching up her nose in a very cute way that made Sebastian’s crush briefly lurch fully back to life.

“You’d be surprised.”

“I get it, though. He’s good-looking, and really nice. You should at least try asking him,” she said.

“It may be quicker to throw myself into an oncoming train,” he said, the sarcasm coming out thick and fast, as it always did when he was nervous. There was literally no way. As much as he liked to read into random actions or things Briar said, there was absolutely no way he was Briar’s type. Mr Sunshine would be much better off dating literally anyone else.

Even if he did ask, Briar would only say yes because he never said no to anyone, and that would be as good as taking advantage of him. Nope. Nope. Sebastian had thought about it long and hard, but it was just not worth it.

Abigail stared at him, her expression a little sad, and then shook his head.

“You should try and put yourself out there more, Seb,” she said. Sebastian tried not to wince at that.

“You sound like my Mom,” he muttered. Abigail patted his shoulder.

“Look – urgh, sorry, Dad’s calling me,” Abigail said, glancing over her shoulder at where Pierre was shouting her name, waving a hand, “He’ll whine non-stop if I don’t rush over there like a good girl right now. I’ll catch up with you later. Cheer up! Bye!”

She rushed off to join her family, leaving Sebastian standing on the sand alone. She could see Mom and Demetrius chatting animatedly with Maru by the bridge, but none of them had seemed to notice his entrance. Although he would prefer they didn’t turn this into a family outing, the thought was oddly lonely.

The twins were on the pier, chatting to Mayor Lewis, who was smiling and nodding along.

Aaand…then he ran out of potential candidates he could hang out with. He fidgeted, and started digging cigarettes and his lighter out of his pocket, if only for something to do. It wasn’t like the fact he didn’t have many friends was new to him, but it was always embarrassing to be reminded.

“Oh! What a shame!”

Sebastian jumped out of his skin, and turned to find Emily staring at him, her brow furrowed and her gaze piercing.

“W-what?”

“Oh…well, your aura has been a lovely emerald recently, but today it’s muddier than I’ve seen it in a long time…” she said, lips pursed, “Would you like to talk about it? I have a wide range of restorative therapies and crystals you might find helpful!”

Sebastian had a very strong feeling that Emily’s brand of ‘magic’ was the sort that would make actual wizards and witches laugh themselves into a coma. He was fairly sure the Wizard on the edge of town didn’t mess about with auras or crystals or clothing therapy or whatever nonsense Emily had cooked up this week.

“No crystals for me…and what’d you mean it’s muddy?” he asked, lighting his cigarette.

“Oh, well, your aura’s had a grey sheen for a long while, but recently it’s begun clearing up,” Emily said, brightening up as though Sebastian’s aura was of the utmost importance to her, “Today it’s all grubby again though. You seem as though you’re being plagued by insecurity…”

As much as he hated to admit it, he understood why Demetrius always talked about Emily as though she was a crazy woman.

“Uh, right,” he said, about to make an awkward excuse to run away from the conversation, when Emily grabbed both of his hands, grasping them in hers.

“You _deserve_ to be happy, just as much as everyone else in this town,” she said, staring at him with complete, horrifying earnestness.

He wondered if throwing himself into the sea was an acceptable way to end this conversation.

“Just think about that,” she said, and then swanned off, as though she hadn’t just attacked him with sentiment.

“I didn’t know you were friends with Emily.”

Sebastian turned to see the twins walking towards him, waving at him.

“She just started talking to me,” he said, rubbing his head.

“That sounds like Emily,” Briar said, “You know she asked me out a few weeks after I got here?”

“You’re kidding?” Fern asked, eyes widening. Briar went pink, scratching his ear.

“Hah, yeah!” he said, “If I was into girls at all though, I would have went for it. She’s so sweet!”

Sebastian tried his best not to grimace. Great. If that was the kind of person Briar was into he _really_ stood no chance.

“Mhm, yep,” Briar continued, his tone weird, “I like being asked. It’s always worth trying.”

What the hell was he babbling about.

Fern rolled her eyes, putting a hand on her brother’s shoulder.

“Okay, bro, we get it.”

Sebastian _thoroughly_ did not.

“Hey, we’re gonna light a candle for the lunaloos, wanna watch ‘em with us?” Briar said, bouncing up and down on his heels.

“I should go see Mom and Maru. They’ll probably be annoyed if I don’t spend time with them this evening,” he said. Briar’s face briefly dropped, but he quickly put his usual smile back in place.

“Okay!” he said, “Well catch up later, then? Fern’s gonna build a fire pit we can hang out around after the lunaloos have went by. We figure Sam and Abigail will wanna hang out too. Bring Maru.”

Sebastian found himself promising to do exactly that, ignoring the way Fern was rolling her eyes at him.

As much as he hated to admit, Maru did genuinely look delighted to be invited. And, watching her sitting on the sand next to Sam, snort-laughing at Abigail’s stories of teenage rebellion, she genuinely didn’t seem _that_ out of place.

#

“…I’m going to sound dumb for asking this –“

“Please, ask!”

“But…why does anyone need monster control teams?” Sebastian said, as Briar handed him back the spliff, “We’ve never had to hire them in the valley.”

Briar bit his lip, glancing down at his hands. They were cross-legged on Briar’s bed, a saucer between them to act as an ashtray.

“The valley is…well, you guys are lucky here. Rasmodius and Linus do a lot to keep the monsters in the area contained in the mines and the secret woods,” Briar said, so carefully that it sounded as though he was trying to talk around something he wasn’t allowed to reveal too much of, “Other places aren’t that lucky. So, either your community needs people who are able to fight monsters off, or local government needs to hire squads to do it for them. Or, if the latter doesn’t happen, you and your family may even need to go private. Hire people to deal with whatever’s causing you problems.”

Sebastian nodded, internally wondering who the hell Rasmodius and Linus were, but not curious enough to derail the conversation further.

“So, uh, most places rely on Joja. They kind of priced a lot of smaller adventurer’s guilds and parties out of the market. Plus, most normal people don’t really have any experience with monster-fighting, and no time to get any, so hiring someone is their only option,” he explained. That much Sebastian vaguely understood. He was aware that a lot of local adventurer’s guilds had a lot of animosity towards Joja Corp, although he hadn’t realised how personal it was.

“And, like, Fern…that was all Fern ever wanted to do when we were growing up. She pushed our parents into signing her up for sword training classes like…age eight,” he said, taking the spliff from Sebastian and taking a long drag, “So when we graduated, Joja was kind of the only place she could feasibly get work. We weren’t, you know, ecstatic about working for Joja, but it was whatever. Dad had paid our way through college, and he was on our case to find work fast. So, Fern went into the monster control department, and I managed to get crappy work in the finance department.”

He reclined back, resting on his elbows and breathing out slowly. Sebastian was so preoccupied with staring at him it took him a moment to notice the joint being pushed back into his fingers.

“And, it was. You know. It was okay. Fern was really happy anyway! But…uh…” he said, and then stroked a hand through his hair.

“Yeah?” Sebastian said, leaning forward.

“Well, she kind of got in trouble. See, if a client can’t pay, Joja policy is just to leave. It doesn’t matter if the whole town is overrun with slimes, or if people are getting attacked by monster wolves. No pay, no slay. That’s the party line,” he continued, scrunching up his nose, “Fern got caught doing uncontracted work. For free.”

“Is…that bad?” Sebastian asked, feeling a bit stupid.

“To them, yeah! If people are willing to just sneak out and do their work for free, where does that leave them?” he said, “So Fern got pulled up, and maybe that should have been the end of it, but then Fern got all…Fern, and started yelling at her bosses, saying that they couldn’t just leave people to get hurt, saying the only reason it ever got this bad was because of corporations like Joja squeezing magic-users and magic education out of the community…”

“Well, they can hardly say she was wrong.

“She didn’t say it that politely,” Briar said, with a half-proud, half-exasperated smile, “Anyway, I heard the rumour Fern was on the line to get fired, maybe even sued, and I –“

He glanced towards the door. From the living room, they could hear the music from the racing game the other three were playing, Sam’s loud laughter and Abigail and Fern’s frustrated swearing.

“Look, you have to promise me you don’t breathe a _word_ of this to her,” Briar said, very seriously. Sebastian nodded, squeezing Briar’s hand. Briar breathed out.

“Okay, so, uh, I begged them to keep her on. My boss agreed to have her transferred to a different department and job. Data input crap, somewhere she couldn’t cause any more trouble,” he said, “I knew she’d hate it, but we needed the jobs. Rent was going up, and our parents would not help us if they learned why we needed help. And my bosses liked me, I’d done a lot of extra work for them. They agreed to help out. On the condition I took on some extra responsibilities and hours.”

“You were already doing enough extra stuff to get favours, but they blackmailed you into additional work?” Sebastian said, gawking. Suddenly, he was very glad he’d never applied for any of the programming positions at Joja, despite the encouragement of every single staff member at his university.

Briar smiled ruefully.

“Hey, you know me!” he said, in a chipper voice that didn’t exactly mask the self-depreciation, “Can never say no to anyone.”

#

Sebastian had always liked rain. It was partially that it meant everyone was off the street. He could walk to the caves or the forest or the beach, and not be disturbed by anyone. But it was also the cool, fresh smell in the air, the low rumble of thunderclouds, the sound of the rain hitting roofs and leaves and the surface of the lake. It was soothing.

So, when everyone else bundled away inside for a rainy day, scowling at the damp windowpanes, Sebastian took a walk.

The Saloon was thrumming with music and laughter as he walked past. Sam was probably hanging out inside as he tended to on rainy evenings, sipping a beer and chatting with Emily at the bar. He didn’t really feel like going in for a drink.

He walked on, hands shoved his pocket and hood up, heading towards the beach. It was nice on nights like this. Quiet. Plus, he was sure he’d seen weird things from the Gem Sea swimming closer to shore during the rain. He’d never really gotten a good look, but he was curious enough to keep trying.

The lights were on in Elliott’s cabin as he walked by. Probably working on the novel he never was always yammering on about.

Sebastian had always scoffed at the guy’s pretentious ambition, the same way he rolled his eyes at Alex’s declarations he would go pro one day, or Maru’s yammering about how she’d advance robotics by a decade on her own. Lately, though, he hadn’t had the heart to. It just made him feel pathetically unambitious. Sure, none of them were there yet, but he wasn’t even _trying_ to do anything cool like that.

He sighed, pushing his hair back. He wasn’t supposed to be thinking of depressing stuff like that.

Hard, frantic footsteps pulled him out of his thoughts. A soggy maniac in an oversized coat was stampeding over the bridge towards him, carrying a stack of red pots in their hands. They rushed past Sebastian, muttering frantically to themselves.

“Okay, okay, there must be enough in here, I can do this, I can do this…”

“…Briar?” Sebastian asked. Briar either ignored him, or didn’t hear him at all. He set the pots down, checking the lids were secured, and then began fussing with his fishing pole, fingers fumbling with the tackle.

“I – okay, bait, bait. Bait next.”

He tossed his rucksack off. It landed in the sand in front of him, and he bent down, digging through until he found what he was looking for – a packet of something pink and fleshy and foul-smelling. Not even bothering with gloves, he grabbed some, forcing it on the hook, hissing as the tip pierced his fingertips.

“Briar,” Sebastian said, becoming concerned. Was he in some kind of. Bizarre fishing mania?

“Okay, where have I had the most luck before…the rock formation near the pier is always good, but –“

“Briar!”

He jumped, almost dropping the rod, and turned. His face was pale, his glasses damp with rain, and his hair sticking to his cheeks and forehead.

“You’re – what are you doing?” he asked. Briar swallowed, and laughed. The sound was high, nervous, and obviously fake.

“Oh, I’m just. I just need to get some fish for tomorrow, the fair, you know,” he said.

“The fair? We normally just have burgers at the fair,” Sebastian said, still utterly bemused. Briar pushed a hand through his hair, his sleeve so wet it was drooping off his wrist and dripping on the sand.

“Ah, yeah, well. I mean, the governor liked the soup at the luau so much, he decided to come to the fair as well,” he said, “And, Mayor Lewis, well, he thought burgers weren’t enough, y’know? The governor’s an important man, it’s vital he’s impressed. A fresh seafood buffet is far more impressive. Shows off the quality of the Valley’s produce much better.”

Sebastian stared at him. It sounded as though he was just parroting what Mayor Lewis said. It even had the old guy’s self-important intonation.

“And – Willy. Willy was going to do it, and he did do it, a lot of it! But then he’s sprained his ankle, so Mayor Lewis asked me, he knows I’m good at fishing. And I like it! It’s fun! It’s really _relaxing_!” Briar continued, voice cracking, “But, you know. He - we wanted red snapper, and – and well, red snapper only comes out in the rain, and it’s been such a _dry_ season, so we’ve had so much to do tending to the crops, and I – hahaha, well, silly me, I left it way, way too late! It’s fine, it’s fine though! I – ha!”

Sebastian took a step forward, not sure exactly what to do, but fairly certain that if left to his own devices Briar would work himself further into hysteria. He put his hands on the other man’s shoulders.

“Okay, Bri? You need to calm down,” he said, trying to keep his voice level, steady.

“I’m fine!” Briar said, with a smile that suggested exactly the opposite, “I mean, I just – I was being a little selfish, prioritising the farm, I should have gotten to work on this way earlier. If I just get plenty of fishing done today…I already have some, just need to make sure there’s enough for everyone…”

Briar twisted out of his grip, picked up his bucket and his fishing pole, and started walking down to the edge of the peer. His boots were spilling water from the rim with every step, and the lines of his back were shaking. Sebastian followed. He could not let the guy run around out here killing himself.

“You look like you’ve been out here for hours,” he said, “You –“

“Oh, don’t mind me. You should get home, out of the rain,” Briar said in a sing-song voice. Sebastian sighed, rubbing a hand through his hair.

“Does the fair _need_ this fancy fish that badly?” he said. Briar rounded on him, eyes wide.

“I promised I’d do it! I can’t disappoint Mr Lewis like that, he’s – he’s been so kind to us since we got here, and he knew my Grandpa so well, and I know Grandpa wanted the Valley to thrive –“

“Breathe,” Sebastian advised, brow furrowed, “Can’t you just tell the mayor to use a cheaper fish? It looks like you’ve caught plenty of other stuff.”

“I – I should be able to do this,” he muttered, seeming as though he were beginning to slow down. Sebastian sighed and put a hand on his back, rubbing circles. Normally, this sort of weird interaction would have him wracked with nerves, but it was like the more wound up Briar got, the calmer he became.

“Listen,” he said gently, “I give the old guy a hard time, but he’s not gonna be mad at you or disappointed or whatever for not wanting to give yourself hypothermia.”

“But –“

“D’you think the fair would be much fun if you spend the whole thing in the clinic?”

Briar blinked, looking for a second as though he’d relent and see Sebastian’s point.

“Ah, just the man I wanted to see!”

Oh, of course.

Sebastian released Briar’s shoulder, maybe too quickly. Mayor Lewis approached, holding a green umbrella over his head, and smiling jovially beneath his oversized moustache.

“Oh, Mayor Lewis, sir,” Briar said, in the same weird, business-like voice he’d been using before, “What bring you here?”

“Ah, well, thought I’d check in on Willy, make sure that ankle is healing up,” he said, and then seemed to inspect Briar more closely, “Good grief, boy, you’re soaking.”

“Haha, I’m fine!”

“Hm…well, if you say so. I trust everything is ready for tomorrow?” he asked. Briar tensed.

“Uh, well – not…I don’t have all the red snapper yet.”

“Oh? Hm…”

“But I can get it all by the end of the day!” he interrupted, spurred into panic by the brief, pensive look on Mayor Lewis’s face, “Don’t worry, it’s all under control!”

“Are you sure, lad? You look a little peaky.”

“Of course I am! I can –“

“He can’t, actually,” Sebastian interrupted, before he could quite stop himself, putting a hand on Briar’s upper back. He felt so tense.

“He can’t?”

“I can’t?” Briar echoed.

“We – uh, have plans for the rest of the day,” Sebastian said, hoping to Yoba that Lewis didn’t ask what those plans were, “They’re important.”

Briar blinked, apparently too blind-sided to argue, and Sebastian glared at Lewis, just daring him to question it or complain. For a brief, embarrassing moment, he was completely ready to throw down with this old man if necessary.

Lewis laughed.

“Ah, well, I’m sure we’ll make do with what we have! I’ll take what we’ve got back. And, honestly, if I knew you were running around exhausting yourself in this weather, I would have had someone fetch you and drag you indoors _hours_ ago,” Lewis said, with a guffaw. He smiled, and then gave Sebastian a look that could only be described as _piercing_. “You make sure he gets warm, alright, son? Take care of him.”

All of Sebastian’s previous fighting spirit drained out of him.

“Uh, yeah, sir, of course,” he said, with a weird feeling he’d agreed to far more than making sure Briar got inside and had a hot meal.

“Very good. Enjoy your evening,” he said, turning tail and heading back towards the beach.

Briar breathed out, looking so relieved he could cry.

“Thank you,” he said, voice a little tight.

Sebastian lit a cigarette, certain his expression was embarrassing.

“You need to learn to say no to people,” he muttered.

“But it’s _hard_ ,” Briar whined, and then glanced up at him, “Can’t I just get you to do it for me from now on?”

“No way.”

“You’re so good at it, though,” he continued, all but batting his eyelashes. Sebastian laughed.

“No. Don’t think being cute will convince me,” he said, and oh hell, what was that, was he flirting, was that what he was doing right now. “I’m not going to be mean for you –“

“You’re not mean,” Briar said, before Sebastian could even get the end of his sentence out, “You’re just…you know. You think for yourself. You don’t let other people pressure you into things. I wish I was more like that, you know? Like, brave, I guess.”

Sebastian stared at him.

“I’m not brave,” he said, shaking his head.

“But –“

“No, I’m really not,” Sebastian said, and sighed, taking another drag of his cigarette, “Listen, the whole reason I like weather like this is, well. It makes everyone go away.”

Briar stared at him. He flicked ash off his cigarette into a pocket ashtray, lips and mouth dry despite the rain.

“I get anxious around other people. Even around the people in this Podunk I’ve known for a million years,” he said, “I guess that’s why I come across as. Y’know. Prickly.”

Briar listened, his expression intense, as though this was the most important thing anyone had ever told him. Sebastian wasn’t sure he could remember the last time anyone had given him such intense, undivided attention.

“I don’t feel that way around you, though,” he said, which was true, in a way. The way his stomach flip-flopped around Briar was very different from the way it twisted and churned when Penny or Emily tried to drag him into small-talk. It wasn’t an altogether unpleasant feeling.

Briar grinned at him, holding his elbows and shivering in the rain.

“I’m glad. I don’t feel anxious around you, either.”

Sebastian raised an eyebrow at him, prompting him to laugh, snorting through his nose. It was far pleasant than the horrid office-laugh he was forcing earlier.

“What! I get anxious. Just…” he said, and gestured, “In the opposite direction, I think.”

“I can see that,” Sebastian said, smiling. Briar wiped the rain from his glasses. Sebastian sighed.

“We’re getting soaked,” he said, and grabbed an umbrella from his pocket. Maru had forced it on him before he went out. It was red and white striped, totally gaudy, but he was grateful for it now. Briar blinked at him as he opened it, holding it above him.

“C’mere. There’s room for two,” he said. Briar groaned.

“Aw, you don’t want me that close to you. I stink of fish,” he said, running a hand through his hair nervously.

“I’ll live,” he said, rolling his eyes, “You, on the other hand, are going to catch your death if you stay out there.”

Great, now he was sounding like his Mom.

Briar stared at him, shuffling closer, seeming nervous. It was a tight fit, but with their shoulders pressed together, they fit alright. Neither of them were particularly big guys, after all.

Though, Sebastian had to admit, Briar hadn’t been kidding. He really did smell awful.

Then Briar took his arm, letting his cheek rest against Sebastian’s shoulder, and all thought of how bad he smelled flew completely out of his head.

They stood, Sebastian smoking his cigarette down to a bare stub, wondering if it was pathetic or creepy of him to be savouring the contact this long, when Briar was probably just cold or touchy-feely generally or whatever. Yet he couldn’t quite bring himself to end it.

Briar shivered, hard enough that Sebastian felt it through his arm.

“Okay, we’re getting you inside,” he said. He sighed and squashed his cigarette butt into his ashtray.

“What? I’m fine!” Briar insisted, with a squeeze of Sebastian’s arm. The fact he hadn’t noticed how stubborn Briar was astounding him. It was endearing and frustrating in equal measure.

“Let’s go to the saloon. I’m sure Gus can get you a towel and something hot to drink,” he said, not about to even leave this up for debate. Briar sighed, sounding as though he were trying to make himself sound as long-suffering as physically possible.

“Fine, fine, but you’re splitting a pizza with me,” he said. Sebastian agreed, not exactly sure why that was meant to be such an imposition, and headed back towards the saloon.

As they walked, Briar didn’t let go of his arm and Sebastian didn’t make him.


	5. Chapter 5

The slow, creeping shapes had returned to Sebastian’s vision, like colourful bruises blooming in and out of sigh on Briar’s ceiling. The saucer between them was still faintly smoking, dirtied with ashes and the remains of the joint. He had given up sitting up straight a long time ago, his head feeling heavy, and his body too boneless and lazy to accommodate it.

“Sooo…you still haven’t really explained why you two became farmers out of the blue,” he said, turning his head to look at Briar, lying next to him. The cat had, at some point, wandered over and made her usual home on Briar’s belly, shedding orange hair all over his shirt. Briar scratched between her ears lazily, chewing thoughtfully on his lower lip.

“Well. Fern dug out the deed to the farm Grandpa had left us and declared she was gonna go run it. And I followed, because, y’know. Sister,” he said, shrugging.

“That is _not_ the full story.”

“What?” he said, turning his head to look at him, “How can you tell?”

“You suck at lying so bad you suck at even doing things _approximating_ lying.”

“Oh, man, you’re right,” Briar said, giggling with enough force that the cat jumped up and stalked out, her tail held high.

“So…do you wanna talk about it?”

“Urgh. It’s kind of embarrassing,” he said, “Tell me something embarrassing about you first.”

“How is that fair?”

“Equivalent exchange, Seb,” Briar said sagely, nodding.

“Okay, okay, fine. Like…like what?” he said, suddenly at a loss. He was fairly certain there were eight billion embarrassing things about him, but now he was on the spot, he couldn’t recall a single one of them. Briar turned on his side, his smile turning devious.

“Liiike, your love life?”

“There is really not much to tell.”

“C’mon. There has to be something.”

Sebastian breathed out.

“Okay, okay, fine. I have only ever dated one person. A girl I went to high school with. We had to travel to a nearby town for school, so she lived like. An hour away. It’s part of the reason I got my bike.”

Briar nodded, clearly completely rapt. Maybe that was the leaf. Or maybe Briar was just genuinely really invested in random, mostly-boring gossip about Sebastian’s life.

“We dated for a year,” he said, “We got together because we both used to sneak out of P.E. to smoke behind the bike sheds. And she cosplayed.”

Briar snorted.

“That’s it?”

“Did you have any deeper romantic connections when you were seventeen?”

“Good point. Carry on.”

“Aaaanyway, for the first six months of our relationship, we mostly just sort of. Made out during school. Hung out with Sam and the girl he was dating at the time –“

“ _Oh_?” Briar said, perking up, “What was she like?”

“Exactly what you’re imagining. A dopey white girl with dreads and a bandana, permanently glued to a skateboard.”

Briar snorted.

“Perfect.”

“Weirdly, the guy he dated in college was a business major. Glasses, taking evening courses in foreign languages and computer skills. Really annoying tendency to correct people’s grammar…”

“Seriously?” he said, “I knew Sam had a boyfriend in college, but…honestly I just kind of imagined Sam with a different hair colour.”

“The weird thing is he broke up with _both_ of them for not being serious enough.”

Briar collapsed into helpless laughter, and Sebastian hid his grin behind his hand. As Briar’s laughter subsided, he swatted Sebastian on the arm.

“Don’t distract me. C’mon. What happened at the six-month mark?”

Sebastian sighed, deciding to go the high road and not mention that Briar was the one who asked about Sam’s ex in the first place.

“This is the embarrassing part of the story,” he said, looking back at the ceiling, “Uh, we had sex at the six month part and it wasn’t. Great.”

Briar bolted upright, so quickly he almost toppled off the edge of the bed, his expression suddenly serious.

“No, no, nothing that bad!” Sebastian said quickly, not sure what Briar was wondering but certain that it wasn’t right, “Just, you know. Elbows and knees everywhere. Body parts not ready to go at the right times. Body parts _finishing_ at the wrong time. Really, really awkward.”

Briar lay back down, seeming to relax. He smiled, shaking his head.

“That’s not even embarrassing. That’s just…being a teenager,” he said, and then frowned, “Try having your first time with a guy, and both of you think a finger covered in spit is a good enough substitute for lube.”

Sebastian was torn between choking with horror at something so crude coming out of Briar’s mouth, and vibrating with silent, hysterical laughter. Trying to do both at once proved to be painful. Briar elbowed him, gently, his expression admonishing.

“Not funny. Had to skip class the next day because I couldn’t sit in my chair.”

“Not helping me not think it’s funny,” Sebastian choked out. Briar pouted, so he forced himself to return back to the sombre stance he had before.

“It wasn’t really the sex that was embarrassing, anyway. For the remaining six months of our relationship, we mostly avoided each other. We tried again a couple of times, but we were both just so embarrassed about how badly we’d messed up the first time that it was always a little half-hearted. We ended up snarking at each other a lot, but it wasn’t sexy, it just felt mean and awkward and made us both feel worse,” he said, cringing at the memory of his past self, “For our one year anniversary, we met up and were like ‘We should probably break up’.”

“That’s rough,” Briar said sympathetically. Sebastian shrugged. It had felt it at the time, but not in the raw, hurt way a break-up should be. More like the feeling of your family and friends coming to see you give an awful performance in a crappy play, after you’d been hyping it up for weeks. He could almost see the funny side at this point. Almost.

“Yeah. That’s it. We didn’t really see each other after that, then she moved to the other side of Ferngill for college, and…meh,” he said, with another shrug. There really wasn’t anything else to say about it. He turned back to face Briar, “So tell me your thing.”

“Oh, fine, I guess you fulfilled your end of the bargain,” Briar huffed, rubbing his cheek, “Just. After Fern got re-assigned, as I said, I was doing a lot more. I was crunching numbers for more projects than anyone else in the department, I was working near every weekend, taking my work home with me, eating my breakfast at my desk…”

Sebastian suddenly felt like an asshole for complaining about his commission work, cosy in his room, with his own schedule to work to and his mother making him home-made meals upstairs.

“I mean, everyone at Joja worked more than they were contracted or paid. Even if you didn’t intend to…the way everyone sneered and gossiped if you didn’t stay later or come in earlier or offer your Saturday once in a while. It got to people,” he continued, “But I was hitting the point where all I did was work, eat instant noodles at my desk, come home, sleep, get up and head to work again.”

“I can’t imagine Fern liked that.”

“She really didn’t, but she was so caught up with how unhappy _she_ was that…yeah,” he said, releasing a heavy sigh.

“Anyway, after a while, I was a mess. Hadn’t seen a vegetable in I don’t know _how_ long. Chain-drinking instant coffee to stay upright,” he continued, staring up at the ceiling as though he were really revisiting those days, “Back and eyes hurting, headache thumping, sure I was making loads of dumb mistakes but not really having the time to check anything, because everything seemed to have the deadline set to _ASAP_. And in Joja terms, that means _yesterday_.”

 “It sounds like hell,” Sebastian said. He’d always despised the idea of having a corporate job, but he’d mostly imagined shmoozy office workers, la-di-da-ing around a water-cooler, none of them lifting a manicured nail to do a thing at all if they could help it.

To his surprise, Briar didn’t deny it, or try to talk about how other people had it worse, only made a vague humming noise at the back of his throat.

“Well. It was my fifteen day working in a row. I was hoping for the next day off. I wasn’t almost done, but I had caught up to the _ASAP_ pile. I was gonna try and get out on time, have a proper meal for once,” he said, and then breathed out, “Aaand, then my boss’s intern – skinny teenage kid – comes over. And drops a bunch more work on me, saying this needs done, yep, _ASAP_.”

“Is this the point where you flipped out, told everyone where they could shove it, and strode out, giving your boss the bird as you went?” Sebastian said hopefully. Briar snorted.

“Nah. I burst into tears.”

“...Oh,” he said, “I mean. Could anyone really blame you?”

Sebastian wasn’t much of a crier, but he could really imagine that would be the most natural reaction in the world. He’d _wanted_ to cry on occasion, after finishing a long, arduous project for a client, and immediately getting a frantic email about some new problem they’d uncovered. And he’d never worked 15 days in a row before.

Briar turned back to face him.

“You know in movies, when someone’s overwhelmed, and a silent tear rolls down their cheek?”

“Yeah?”

“It was _not_ like that. It was more like when a little kid falls over and scrapes their knee, but because they’re so young, it’s the most painful thing they’ve ever experienced,” he said, “I mean, I was really wailing. Snot running down my face. Cheeks going red. Big horrid ugly crying. Everyone coming over to check on me. It went on for _ages_ , as well.”

“Damn.”

“What was worse was that I could _tell_ what a scene I was making. I wanted so badly to stop, I really did. I tried really hard, but I couldn’t. It was like I was outside my body, watching as I totally embarrassed myself,” he said, and then laughed, “I just felt so bad for that poor kid. Here they were, just trying to get through their internship, and they end up watching a grown man throw a tantrum at his desk.”

“It doesn’t sound like a tantrum. It sounds like a panic attack,” Sebastian said.

“Ha, you think?”

“Is that not what the doctor said?”

“Oh, uh, I didn’t see a doctor,” he said, “They just sent me home, told me to take the next few days and come back after I’d got my head back on straight.”

“Th-that’s – you had a reaction like _that_ and nobody thought to take you to a doctor?”

Briar shrugged.

“It’s their insurance money they’d be spending.”

“Urgh. That’s evil.”

“That’s capitalism.”

Sebastian snorted, and Briar smiled at him, absent-mindedly resting his hand on Sebastian’s arm, rubbing circles into the fabric of his hoodie with a thumb.

“Aaaanyway, I finally had time off, but I was so mortified I couldn’t enjoy it. I just kept thinking about going back into work, what everyone would be saying about me in the office,” he said, in a tone that suggested he still wondered about that, “But then, just I was working myself up to going in the next day, Fern comes home with a letter from Grandpa and a deed to a farm, yelling about how she quit her job today, saying she was gonna move out to the valley. And. So I thought. Screw it. Emailed my resignation that morning and booked bus tickets that afternoon.”

“ _That’s_ brave.”

“Haha, no way. Brave would have been going in and facing them. I just ran with my tail between my legs.”

“Completely changing your life is very brave,” Sebastian muttered, suddenly very conscious of the warm of Briar’s hand on his arm, his breath warm against his cheek.

“I’ve been talking about moving to Zuzu for _years_ but I’ve always been too scared to actually do it.”

“Oh. Yeah. That,” Briar said, grasping one of Sebastian’s hands, playing with his fingers idly, “Are you still planning on it?”

“…I’ve been reconsidering it, lately.”

#

“Okay. Bri. You need to chill.”

“I am chill,” Briar said. Most people would believe it – he was lying on the floor of Sebastian’s room, shoulders propped up against the sofa, working on something in his notebook. Yet he was jiggling his foot up and down, chewing on the inside of his cheek, occasionally pulling out strands of hair near his temple.

Sebastian sighed, turning away from the code he was working on.

“Fern will be fine. Abby is with her. And I know I give her a hard time, but she’s been getting pretty good with a sword lately,” he said, shaking his head.

He didn’t know what it said about them, that they were sitting at home working on their quiet projects, while the women were off murdering monsters. It was probably something Alex or his Grandpa would take issue with, but Sebastian didn’t mind. Those two madwomen could run off and fight mountains of skeletons if they wanted, Sebastian was happy enough working on his RPG.

“I know that. It doesn’t mean I can’t worry until they get back,” Briar replied, putting the cap on his pen and picking something else out of the packet. Sebastian had never seen someone use so much stationary for one notebook.

“What are you doing anyway?” Sebastian said, swinging towards him and stepping out of his chair. Briar sat up, putting a hand on his notebook, hiding whatever he was working on.

“I’m running the numbers for this month. Figuring out what we’ve sold, what we’ve spent, what’s been profitable, trying to figure out if we’ve got everything we need for winter…that sorta stuff,” he said, “And I’m trying to figure out how to get the best use of our space. We’re starting to use up a lot of it, and Fern is happy enough to just build and plant stuff wherever, and just buy animals from Marnie she likes, rather than ones best for business. But I’m seeing if I can figure out an optimum, I guess.”

Sebastian tilted his head, trying to take a look. Briar sighed and removed his hand. He’d been carefully plotting out a map of the farm on graph paper, all in precise lines, carefully colour coded. The map was annotated with labels for each building, sums and predictions.

“Huh. I didn’t think you were the maximise-profit type,” he said, a bit disappointed. Briar shook his head, cheeks reddening.

“I’m not! I don’t know if we’ll even use them. I love my bees, even though they don’t really bring in that much money and the flowers I grow for them take up a lot of space for very little profit. I wouldn’t want to give them up, but…it’s fun to work it out,” he said, tapping his pen against lower lip, “It’s theoretical. Like a puzzle. Or a mathematical theorem.”

Sebastian stared.

“Do you get bored here?”

“Huh?”

“In the Valley, running the farm. Do you get bored?” he said, coming to sit down next to him, “I don’t know where you want to college or –“

“Zuzu U, major in mathematics, minor in biology,” he said, with an odd smile. Sebastian laughed, not even remotely surprised.

“That’s what I mean. You’re clearly a smart guy,” he said, and because Briar grinned a little too smugly at that, added, “Despite, you know. Acting like a doofus half the time.”

“Rude.”

“You fell into the fishing pool at the fair,” Sebastian pointed out.

“I was tired, and the fish pulled harder than I was expecting!” he said, but he was smiling, “And, what about you, the genius programmer?”

Sebastian snorted.

“Try the mediocre programmer. I’m nothing special. I went to community college the next town over, slept through half my classes, and graduated with a just-whatever degree in computer science,” he said, shrugging, “I’m a dime a dozen.”

“Please. I’ve seen your code,” Briar replied, flicking him on the leg, “Just because you didn’t get the fanciest piece of expensive paper you could doesn’t mean you’re not smart.”

“You’re one of the few who think that,” he mumbled, and then sighed, “Besides, that’s not the point. You could be out there doing something really big. Are you alright just hanging out here in the boonies?”

With people like me, he didn’t add. Judging by the look on Briar’s face, he could tell that Sebastian was thinking it.

Briar clicked his tongue and closed his notebook, turning his body to face him.

“Listen, this isn’t exactly the track my parents were hoping I’d be on – Yoba, I thought I’d be abroad working on my PhD right now – but this is where I want to be, okay?” he said, and took Sebastian’s arm. A habit he’d picked up recently. Sebastian knew he was setting himself for hurt, letting Briar get all touchy-feely like this, but he didn’t really have the hurt to pull away.

What was it Abby had called him? Touch-starved? Whatever the word, it was pathetic.

“I know you think the big city is, you know, the only place worth being. But I honestly wasn’t using my brain more there. If anything, at Joja, I was using it less. And whenever I was, it was only to earn some old rich dude I’d never met money,” he continued, “I am far happier using my fancy degree to figure out how to maximise my strawberry profits.”

“I don’t think the city is the _only_ place worth being,” Sebastian said, feeling a bit defensive. He didn’t like the idea that he was just known as the guy who complained about Pelican Town all the time, especially when he didn’t follow through. It must be just as annoying as hearing Alex yap on about how he’s going to be a lineback for the Tunnelers or whatever.

“So, what are _you_ working on?” Briar said, tilting his chin towards Sebastian’s computer.

“Oh, just a game thing. Kinda based on a tabletop campaign me and the guys played in high school. It’s stupid.”

“Oh c’mon, don’t be vague! Show me!” Briar said, bouncing to his feet, and heading over to the computer like an excited kid. Sebastian shook his head but followed, walking Briar through some of his more developed sketches and designs for mechanisms. Briar actually seemed genuinely excited about it. Not the bemused, forced enthusiasm his Mom showed him, or the faintly exasperated you’ve-had-a-million-projects-like-this interest Abby or Sam gave him.

Sebastian wanted to drag every folder of notes he’d ever put together, dust them off, and talk Briar through each one. He’d almost forgotten how excited he’d been about this project, back when he was starting to put it together, all the different ideas he’d worked on.

Briar listened to him as he explained the relationship-building mechanism he had planned, grinning and eyes shining. Even talking about this, Sebastian’s heart was in his mouth, and he found himself imagining what it’d be like to just wind an arm around his waist, tug him into his lap.

This was a disaster.

“We’re back!” called a voice from upstairs.

“Oh, the girls are back,” Briar said. Sebastian nodded, trying to pretend he wasn’t irrationally annoyed by their return. The door opened and Fern and Abby walked in, swords on their backs, faces covered in dirt, elbows scraped. Abby was grinning and shaking at the same time, looking a weird mix between exhilarated and completely terrified.

“Good trip?” Briar asked.

“Yeah. Abby screamed because a ghost touched her and drew out a coven of skeletons,” Fern said, immediately.

“You said you wouldn’t tell people that!”

“Consider this: it was funny,” Fern said, and then clapped her on the shoulder, “Besides, you took out plenty. We just need to work on how you deal with non-corporeal monsters.”

They started laughing and relaying stories about the mines. Abby tucked her weaponry into the usual hiding spot in Sebastian’s room (Pierre would freak if he found it in hers). 

Sebastian stood, quietly tucking his notes out of sight before the girls noticed them. He couldn’t stop glancing at Briar, watching as he fussed over even the most minor of Fern and Abby’s injuries, laughing and rubbing his hand through his hair as his sister roasted him for it.

Okay, this was officially becoming a mess.

He needed to put some distance between him and Briar. He was this close to just blurting out something he couldn’t take back. It wasn’t exactly like he had a lot of friends, he couldn’t risk making it awkward with one of the few he had.

For a couple of weeks, he’d just not spend much time with the twins. The distance would let him cool off, take a step back from this stupid crush and realise it wasn’t a big deal, it wasn’t eating him up inside.

“Oh, Seb!” Briar said, just as he was about to leave, “Me and Fern have been growing some uh... _medicinal_ plants on the farm. We think they’re ready to smoke now.”

“Really, you?” Sebastian said, eyes widening. Briar just smirked, tapping his nose. Sebastian shook his head. No way, this was totally Fern’s idea up and down. Briar was just doing that thing where he messed with people and then acted all innocent about it. The boy had never touched a single illegal substance in his life.

“Yeah, so, we’re gonna have a get-together this weekend and try it. Plus, we wanna show you guys our newly refurbished house. You in?” Briar asked.

“Uh. If I have time,” he said, voice hoarse.

“Great, see you then!” Briar replied, as though Sebastian had just enthusiastically agreed and then wrote it straight down in his diary.

Before Sebastian could get up and put some distance between them, Briar pulled him into a tight hug. He was warm and smelled nice and fuuuuck this sucked so bad. Maybe he should just get on his bike and move to Zuzu tonight.

“Bri, we gotta go, I need a bath!” Fern called from the door, “Seb, put him down. You don’t know where he’s been.”

Sebastian snapped his arms away as though Briar had spontaneously caught fire, conscious of the fact Fern could probably break him over her knee if she thought he were being untoward regarding her precious brother.

“Alright. See you later,” he said, feeling and sounding extremely stupid.

“Later, dude!” Fern and Abby called. Fern was all but dragging her brother by the arm, as he continued to wave him.

“See you this weekend, Seb.”

Sebastian stared at the door as it slammed shut, listening to their footsteps and laughter above as they left.

No. No way. He would absolutely not see him this weekend.

He couldn’t keep setting himself up to get hurt like this.

It wasn’t like anything would ever happen between them.


	6. Chapter 6

Sebastian had no idea how they’d ended up making out.

He wished he did. That there had been a moment where one of them took the incentive, or Sebastian could remember making a decision either way, some kind of romantic final comment that sent them crashing together.

Instead at some point they’d just started kissing and he wasn’t even sure who had started it.

Then Briar rolled on top of him, pressing his weight down and tangling a hand in Sebastian’s hair as he dove back in, and Sebastian realised with 100% clarity that he absolutely did not give a shit. For once, he was going to just stop thinking and enjoy it.

He sat up a little, grabbing the hem of his hoodie.

“Hold on,” he muttered, “I’m hot.”

“Not news to me,” Briar said, with a grin, and that was a corny-ass line Sebastian would have rolled his eyes at in literally every other scenario, but all he could do was blush and fumble his hoodie off. As it got stuck over his head, he heard Briar laugh, felt him grab the fabric and tug it off. For some reason, it didn’t feel bad-awkward, just funny-awkward. Sebastian looped an arm around Briar’s waist, pulling him back in.

This was awesome. He was so glad he’d came. He would do this for hours if Briar would let him, and judging by his reactions, he would.

The bedroom door burst open.

“Bri, you gotta – oh.”

Fern stopped, still gripping the door handle. Briar sat up, still straddling Sebastian’s lap, and closed his eyes, taking in a deep breath.

“…Someone better be dead,” he said.

Sebastian could see Fern gawking. Sam lingered behind her, glancing in. His eyes widened briefly, but then he grinned, shooting Sebastian a thumbs up.

Sebastian changed his mind. This was not awesome. He hoped he burst into flames and died, taking everyone in this room with him in the process.

“Mayor Lewis is at the door,” she said.

Briar sighed, standing up and straightening out his collar and hair. Sebastian was about to do the same, then he glanced down and settled for putting a pillow over his lap and willing death to come quickly.

“What does he want at this hour?” Briar said, doing an extraordinary impression of someone that wasn’t half-baked and hadn’t had his tongue in another man’s mouth five seconds ago.

“We have no idea,” Fern said, “We turned out the lights and ducked under the couch as soon as we heard him.

“…Guys, _seriously_?” he replied, putting his face in his hand.

“We stink of starleaf, and have _clearly_ been up to no good!” Fern said, grimacing, “And…uh, well…remember that time we tried to make vodka from our potato crops and it tasted like crap?”

“Yeah.”

“And was really strong?”

“…Yeah.”

“We opened that while you guys were on the train to make-out town in here.”

There was a retching noise, and the wet splash of something viscous hitting water.

“…That’s Abby throwing up in the toilet, isn’t it?”

“The kitchen sink,” Fern said, with a grin that made Sebastian suddenly and intensely aware that, even if it were only by minutes, she was the younger sibling of the two. For all her boisterous attitude, she would still come running to her big brother for help.

“Pleeease, Bri,” Fern said, clasping her hands together, “You’re the only one of us that adults really like –“

“We _are_ adults,” Briar pointed out, completely ignoring the fact they’d all spent the entire evening acting more like high schoolers than twenty-somethings.

“Just go talk to him and make him go away before he gets pissed?” she said, “Or. Y’know. Spots the starleaf crops.”

“…Crap, yeah. I don’t think he’d get us in trouble, not for that tiny crop, but…he wouldn’t be happy…” Briar said, and glanced back to give Sebastian an apologetic smile, “I’ll see what he wants.”

Fern thanked him profusely as he walked past her, heading towards the front door. With a quick check to see that Mini-Seb had well and truly calmed himself down, Sebastian followed. The living room was dark, but clearly in disarray. Briar’s carefully filled water bottles had long been discarded, and the entire room smelled of vodka, starleaf, and unbridled millennial stupidity.

“Down here, dude,” Sam gestured, crouching behind the couch. Staggering like an awful potato-vodka zombie, Abigail joined them, leaning against Sam for support.

They heard the door open.

“Mayor Lewis! What brings you around at this hour, sir?”

Ah, the phone voice was out, Sebastian thought fondly.

“Ah, Briar, good to see you, I’m very sorry to be here so late –“

“Not a problem, sir, I was awake myself.”

“You ever notice how Briar talks to old people like he’s from the 1950s?” Sam muttered to him, giggling. Sebastian shushed him.

“Good, good, I’ve just ran out of, er, well, the product you’ve been so kindly making for me. I’m afraid we – _I_ need some more, quite soon.”

Sam and Sebastian exchanged quizzical looks. Fern’s hands went to her mouth. Abigail fell asleep against Sam’s shoulder.

“Ah, not a problem, sir, I have some here, just wait there one second –“

“Oh, I don’t mind waiting inside. I’ve actually been curious about what Robin did –“

“We’re still in the middle of decorating, I’d rather you didn’t –“

A huge sniff. The three of them (excluding Abby, who was now beginning to snore softly) stiffened.

“What in Yoba’s name is that smell?”

“Er. Paint?”

“Briar, why is it that you’re up so late? Why is the living room dark? And why can I smell something that smells _awfully_ like starleaf…”

“He’s going to just blurt it out,” Fern whispered, rubbing her forehead with a hand, “I should have just answered the door and took the Mayor liking me even less.”

There was a moment of silence.

“I don’t know, sir. Why do you need truffle oil in the middle of the night?” Briar said finally, “And why do your footprints lead straight to Marnie’s ranch?”

Fern slapped a hand over her mouth, her shoulders shaking. Sebastian, for his part, was completely bewildered. Truffle oil? The mayor had come out all this way in the middle of the night for truffle oil? Why?

“…Briar, my boy, you seem to have a bruise on your neck.”

“With all due respect, Mr Mayor, sir – so do you.”

The ensuing silence was painful, not least because, even without turning to look, Sebastian could _feel_ Sam smirking and Fern glowering.

“…Let’s never speak of this.”

“Let’s. Um. Here’s the oil.”

“Ah. Excellent quality as ever, lad.”

“Right. Well. Have a good night, sir.”

“Er. You too, lad. I suppose.”

The door closed. Briar breathed out, loudly, and turned on the light. They emerged from behind the sofa.

“Sheesh, that was the most I’ve ever heard you stand up to an authority figure in our _lives_ ,” Fern said, slapping her brother on the back with a guffaw.

“He didn’t sound too mad, though,” Sebastian assured him quickly. Briar sighed, rubbing the back of his head. Despite his composed expression, Sebastian couldn’t help but notice that his knees were quite literally knocking together.

“Yeah. That was my last bottle of truffle oil, though,” he said, and then added in a mutter, “So there’s _my_ plans for the night ruined.”

Fern made a horrified choking noise, punching Briar square on the arm. Sebastian looked to Sam, confused, but he simply shrugged.

“Aw, jeez, Abby’s a mess,” Briar said, laying a hand gently on her shoulder, “Abby, Abs? C’mon, wake up.”

“Bwuh?” Abigail said, eyes fluttering open. She jerked upright, almost toppling over before Fern caught her.

“Sheesh. Let’s get you into bed,” Fern said, “You can sleep in my bed with me, okay?”

“Mkay, sounds good,” Abigail said, already dropping off again.

“No, no, wake up. You’re drinking plenty of water before you go,” Briar interrupted, already pushing a glass of water into Abigail’s hands, “Fern, make sure she’s not going to throw up in her sleep, okay?”

“Yoba, you sound more like Mom every day,” Fern said, with a roll of her eyes, “Sure, sure. C’mon, Abs, you get that down you and we’ll find you an old shirt to sleep in or somethin’.”

With that, Fern half-walked, half-carried Abigail towards her room.

“Guess I’ll take the couch!” Sam said cheerfully, lay down, and fell asleep immediately.

“…S-Sam, no – _water_ …urgh.”

“Don’t bother,” Sebastian said, putting a hand on his shoulder, “He won’t move until 9am now.”

Briar only shook his head. Sebastian could sympathise. He’d known Alex his entire life but the guy continued to be an enigma.

Sebastian glanced over to Briar’s bedroom door, still half-open. It wouldn’t be weird to suggest they go back in and continue what they were doing, would it? Even with the starleaf wearing off, Sebastian found he was completely ready to keep going.

As he was about to hint at it, he noticed Briar looking around at the debris of the living room – the empty chip packets, glasses and paper cups and bottles dotted around, the filthy plates still oozing cheese. His eye was twitching.

Sebastian nudged his side.

“Do you want help cleaning up?”

Relief washed over Briar’s face.

“ _You_ are an angel,” he said, giving him a peck on the lips so fast Sebastian barely felt it. Flushing, he darted to the kitchen and back, shoving something white into Sebastian’s hands.

“Here’s a binbag,” he said, “You deal with the garbage, I’ll do the dishes.”

#

Sebastian woke to Briar’s side of the bed empty, and his throat dry. He sits up, grabbing a glass of water from the nightstand, and chugs it down.

He can hear people moving around in the living room, the rumble of the coffee machine.

If it wasn’t for how badly he wanted a caffeine hit, and because he wanted to see if Briar was still home, he’d be turning back over and heading straight back to sleep.

Sitting up and rubbing the back of his neck, he headed out into the living room. Neither of the twins were there, just Sam fighting with the coffee machine, and Abigail sitting with her face in her hands on the couch.

“Morning, dude. Nice pyjama bottoms,” Sam said. Sebastian glanced down. What he’d taken to be just little brown blobs were, in fact, tiny cowboys.

“They’re Briar’s,” he said quickly, face colouring, “Abby -?”

“Don’t,” she snapped.

“Don’t what?”

“Don’t…speak to me right now,” she said, and then looked up. She was pale, her hair tugged into a ponytail, wearing a baggy Zuzu U hoodie that had been undoubtedly dug from the back of Fern’s closet, “I threw up in their sink.”

“We cleaned up the worst of it. It wasn’t too bad,” he assured her.

“We? And since when do you clean?” Abigail said, still rubbing her forehead.

“Er,” he said. He didn’t need to look around to know Sam was smirking at him, “Me and Briar cleaned up a little after you guys went to sleep.”

“Wow,” she said, and then added in a mumble that Sebastian quickly decided to pretend not to hear, “…around his little pinkie finger.”

“They were making out when we went to check on them,” Sam piped up helpfully.

“ _Shut up_ ,” Sebastian hissed, swatting him on the arm. Abigail’s arms widened.

“What!? They were!? I don’t remember that!”

“You also missed Briar telling Mayor Lewis to fuck off.”

“It wasn’t exactly like that,” Sebastian added, sighing and accepting a cup of coffee from Sam. It was rich and dark, far better than the instant coffee he made for himself at home.

“It was close enough.”

“Awww, I missed everything!” Abigail groaned, burying her face back in her hands.

“You shouldn’t have drank the King’s Cup,” Sam said, with a pat on her back.

“Where are the twins anyway?”

“Working, duh. Came rampaging through the living room at 6am, talking about how the sheep need to be sheared today,” Sam said, “They’re morning people, apparently.”

“Briar was wearing a scarf,” Abigail murmured, “Sheep on it.”

“Are you still drunk?”

“Possibly,” she said, taking another glug of coffee, “Wow, Dad is going to _kill_ me. Urgh.”

“Yeah, uh, we’ll do what we can to help you pull yourself together before we go, but…yeah,” Sam said, scratching the back of his neck, “Oh, Seb! Your phone’s on charge on the kitchen counter over there! Bri told me to let you know.”

“Oh, thanks –“

“Sooo?”

“So what.”

“What happened, dude?” Sam said, sitting down on the couch. Abigail sat up, all the alcohol in her body apparently evaporating within an instant.

“Nothing,” he said.

“ _Nothing_?” Abigail echoed. Their expressions were equally sceptical.

“Okay, seriously, are we in high school, right now?” Sebastian snapped, and then rubbed a hand through his hair, “We sobered up and by then we were tired. We talked a bit and fell asleep. The end. You two are too easily excited.”

They both sighed.

“So are you going to ask him out?” Abigail asked, folding her arms.

“Of course no –“

They both shouted over him before he could even finish his sentence, both of them tossing pillows. He held up his arms.

“What? _What?_ ” he said, “So we – we were both high, it doesn’t count. I really doubt he’s interested.”

 “Dude, I swear, if I don’t see you buying a bouquet at Dad’s in the next week I’m going to _let_ Fern kill you,” Abigail said.

“Wh – wait, _let_?”

“Seriously, man? This is just like what you did wi –“ Sam said, falling silent at the frantic slashing gesture Sebastian made over his neck. He glanced back at Abigail, “With, er, the last person you liked.”

“Sebastian liked someone before Bri?” Abigail said, looking between them, “Who? Was it Shane?”

“It was _not_ – okay, look, let’s just finish our coffee and head home before our parents kill us,” Sebastian said, draining the rest of his cup, “Where did you say my phone was?”

#

_Morning, dude!!!_ _\\(*^_ _ᗜ_ _^*)/_

_Sorry I left before you woke up. I didn’t wanna wake you up, but I do have work to do today._

_Hope your head feels better than mine. (-_ _﹏-_ _。)_

_I found your phone under the couch, so I put it on charge in the kitchen!! (^u^)_

_It’ll still be dead right now, so that is probably why I feel ok texting you._

_Last night was really fun!! I’m sorry it got a little derailed by the Mayor turning up with his…problems…_

_(Trust me, less you know about that the better.)_

_I just want to let you know tahatjhjagnfhgfdfdnfldfghghgh_

_Efjnjrgn rkhgjkfgjb_

_Tghitjihjtignthnt t t t t t t t t t t  t_

_T T T T TT T t_

_t_

_Sorry, that was Mildred!! Bad girl!!!_ _ヾ(_ _･`_ _⌓_ _´_ _･)_ _ﾉﾞ She always thinks my phone is a snack…_

_(Mildred is a goat. They’re like that.)_

_Oh jeez, Millie’s totally put me off. Just, I honestly think the feeling’s probably not mutual because I’ve been dropping LOADS of hints and you haven’t really taken any of them, but Sam says you’re dense so…  ⁄(⁄ ⁄•⁄-⁄•⁄ ⁄)⁄_

_Wait, crap, I did this backwards!!!_

_URGH!_

_What I was SUPPOSED to say before that and before Millie started chewing on my hair because she’s the naughtiest girl in the world, is that I am super into you!_

_I like you, like, a lot. It is honestly pretty obvious, so you probably already know._

_Soooo, yep._ _╰_ _(_ _･_ _ᗜ_ _･_ _)_ _╯_ _The ball is sorta in your court now. If you wanna ask me out, do it, oooor, ignore these texts and I’ll take that as letting me down easy?_

_Don’t worry about hurting my feelings, I’m a big boy, I can take it. (*•̀ᴗ•́*)  As long as we can still be friends I’ll be okay!!_

_And I know Fern_ seems _scary but she likes you, she won’t actually kick your ass._

_Wow, that was a lot of texts._

_Okay, I really do have to finish shearing these sheep. Bye!!!!_

#

“I could hear you pacing from my room.”

Sebastian jumped, dropping his phone with a clatter, as he turned to see Maru standing at his bedroom door. He hadn’t even heard her come in.

“Get out of my room,” he blurted out. If only out of habit.

Maru wasn’t _that_ bad, he supposed. He just didn’t what to deal with her right now.

Rather than slink out of the room the second Sebastian was a bit sharp with her, like she would have a few short months ago, Maru marched in and scooped his phone off the floor, ignoring his cry of protest.

“Let’s see what’s gotten you so worked up,” she said, adjusting her glasses. He jumped at her, trying to grab it back, but Maru easily held him away. Unlike him, she got plenty of exercise welding and building things, and the few inches Sebastian had on her did little to help.

Breathing heavily, Sebastian forfeited, shoving his hands in his pockets and trying to look like he didn’t care either way if Maru read his stupid texts or not. It was whatever. He was not so intensely, horribly embarrassed he could die.

She looked up at him, finally, lips pursed.

“So, what are you doing to do?” she asked, as though that wasn’t the question that had him circling his room minutes before. He huffed, itching for a cigarette, and shrugged.

“Don’t _shrug_!” Maru said, and then frowned at him, “You know, if you’ve been stringing him along, half the town will chase you out with torches and pitchforks. And I can’t promise I won’t be one of them.”

“I have _not_ been doing that,” he said, immediately, “It’s just. Hard. I’m not exactly the kind of guy who puts himself out there very often.”

“Hm. You know. I think that’s exactly why he’s left it like this…”

“What, to _test_ me?” Sebastian snapped. The thought had occurred to him. That this was some kind of mean test on Briar’s end – like, he would go out with him, sure, but only if he got the guts to actually ask. It didn’t exactly sound like the kind of thing Briar would do, but the thought popped into his head anyway, and refused to budge once it was there.

Maru sighed, rolling her eyes up at the ceiling.

“Of course not, why do you have to assume the worst in everyone?” she said, her face softened, “I think he wants to make sure he wouldn’t put you on the spot. Or leave you not sure. I mean, he’s given you a guaranteed yes. I think he’s trying to be kind.”

“Well, what am I meant to do, then?” he said, hearing himself being stroppy and bad-tempered, even though he knew fine well Maru was just trying to help.

She smiled at him, a bit wickedly, and then keyed a few numbers into his phone.

“Hello, Pierre?” she said, in a deep, gloomy voice, “Yeah, it’s me, Sebastian. Totally. I’d like to put in an order for a bouquet, to pick up later today. Yep, totally me. Yep, romantic bouquet. The third kind. Yeah. Thanks. Maybe you’re not as much of a conformist as I thought.”

She hung up. All Sebastian could do was stare at her, completely horrified.

“That was a horrible impression of me,” he said finally.

“Look, if you genuinely don’t want to pick it up, I will call back up and cancel it, I promise,” she said, holding up a finger, “ _But_ , I think you want to do this.”

He chewed on his nails.

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take, Sebastian,” she continued.

“Please don’t give me Demetrius-wisdom right now,” he groaned. She laughed and handed his phone back to him.

“I can walk to Pierre’s with you, if you want,” she said sweetly. He shook his head, and turned to grab his scarf and coat from the couch.

“No way, I don’t need a chaperon,” he said, forcing his breathing to steady, “I’m doing this. If only because you’re going to stand here being annoying until I do.”

“I’m your little sister,” she said, “It’s my job to be annoying.”

“I suppose so. Now get the hell out of my room, I’m going,” he said. She laughed, heading up the stairs, twisting around to give him a quick wave.

“Good luck, big bro.”

#

_hey_

_uh, i kinda have something for you_

_are you free at the min?_

_Σ(_ _･_ _o_ _･_ _;)_

_its ok if not_

_No, dude, come right over!!_

_k heading that way now_

_Okay!!!! (_ _•_ _ᴗ•)_ _♡_ _✧_ _*  
Can’t wait to see you (^u^)_

_see you soon_  
urgh maru ordered something way too big…  
please don’t laugh at how awkward I look carrying this

_I wouldn’t dream of it (_ _∗_ _´_ _꒳_ _`)_ _♡♡_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's a wrap! Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it. You can find me at [clefairytea.tumblr.com](http://clefairytea.tumblr.com/) if you wanna talk Stardew!


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